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NAPOLEON'S ADDRESSES 



NAPOLEON'S ADDRESSES 



SELECTIONS 

FROM THE PROCLAMATIONS, SPEECHES 
AND CORRESPONDENCE 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 



Edited by IDA M. TARBELL 



,^< <n%.-v. 



boston' 
joseph knight company 

1897 



CoPyrigJtt, i8qb 
By Joseph Knight Company 



Colonial Press: 

C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped by Geo. C. Scott & Sons 



INTRODUCTION. 

The flash of Napoleon Bonaparte's sword 
so blinded men in his lifetime, and, indeed, 
long after, that they were unable to dis- 
tinguish a second weapon in his hand. 

.e clearer vision which time and study 
jring have shown that he used words 
almost as effectively as the sword, and that 
throughout his career the address ably 
supported the military manoeuvre. 

The first complete demonstration of the 
elaborate use made by Napoleon of the ad- 
dress was the publication of the gigantic 
work known as the " Correspondance de 
Napoleon y Though the thirty-two pon- 
derous volumes which form this magnus 
opus appeared nearly forty years ago, it is 
little known to general readers, its size and 
cost confining it to special libraries, and its 
documentary character repelling all but 
special students. 

Yet it is only in these volumes that 

Napoleon's official life can be traced in de- 
vil 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



tail from Toulon to St. Helena. Every 
document which he wrote relating to pub- 
lic affairs is — if we may believe the 
editors — printed in the collection. The 
number is enormous. When the commis- 
sion appointed to collect the material began 
its labors, it found itself obliged to go 
through ten thousand volumes pertaining 
to Napoleon's life. The archives of Paris 
yielded forty thousand different documents 
of which he was the author, and the rulers 
of Austria, Bavaria, Hesse, Russia, Sar- 
dinia, and Wurtemberg sent contributions 
from their royal records. 

Across the pages of the great tomes file 
the mighty procession of soldiers and gen- 
erals, priests and cardinals, kings and 
peoples who, in the twenty years in which 
Napoleon was the preeminent figure of 
Europe, fell captive to his charms or his 
power. Here are the words by which he 
fired starving armies to battle, bullied 
obstinate powers to follow his plans, put 
hope into despot-ridden people, told kings 
their duties. 

In these addresses one traces Napoleon's 
daily thought, so far as he cared to reveal 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

it to others, watches the development of 
his plans and follows the gradual enlarge- 
ment of his power. Nowhere else is there 
so fine an opportunity to observe the steady 
unfolding of his ambition for world- 
mastery, to see how he aspired to rule 
France, then her neighbors, then Europe, 
the Orient, America, the Isles of the sea. 
An especially curious study in connection 
with that of the evolution of his ambition 
is that of the methods he followed to 
enlist men in his stupendous undertakings. 
Such a study is possible only in the ad- 
dresses. 

The spell he exercised over the army is 
explained here, partially, at least. It was 
the custom to post the addresses through- 
out the ranks where each soldier could see 
and read them. The men had been accus- 
tomed at home to seeing all official com- 
munications from the Government to the 
people placed on the bill-boards, and so 
read them from habit. But Napoleon's 
bulletins, if they were posted in a familiar 
way, had a new character. He addressed 
the soldiers as if they were comrades, ex- 
plaining the general situation of the army 



X INTRODUCTION. 

to them, exhorting them to new efforts and 
promising them rich rewards. 

After a battle he stated the results to 
them, thus giving them a tacit recogni- 
tion of their importance. The explanation 
was one that all understood ; it was clear 
and explicit, and bristled with figures. 
Your common man grasps numbers. They 
are the bullets of speech and sink in like 
lead. When Napoleon rattled a volley of 
numbers at them — " Soldiers, in fifteen 
days you have gained six victories, taken 
twenty - one stands of colors, fifty - five 
pieces of cannon, and several fortresses, 
and conquered the richest part of Pied- 
mont. You have made fifteen hundred 
prisoners, and killed or wounded ten thou- 
sand men " — they understood, and glowed 
with pride. 

The phrases with which he praised, 
condemned, exhorted them, were short, 
terse, and unforgetable. " You will return 
to your homes, and your countrymen will 
say as they point you out, ' He belonged 
to the Army of Italy.' " Not a man with 
a spark of pride but remembered those 
words and dreamed that he walked the 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

village street and heard the whisper follow- 
ing him, *' He belonged to the Army of 
Italy." " Soldiers, from the summit of 
these pyramids forty centuries look down 
upon you," he cried in Egypt. The splen- 
did phrase voiced the awe of the army in 
the shadow of the mysterious monuments, 
and they charged their dark - faced foes as 
if in the presence of all the heroes of the 
past. 

The perfect clearness and directness of 
the addresses is their most striking liter- 
ary quality. The classic pose affected by 
writers in Napoleon's day he entirely 
ignored. He wished those whom he ad- 
dressed to understand his meaning. If he 
spoke to the soldier it was to convince him 
that certain facts were true and to persuade 
him to adopt certain theories. To do this 
he put what he wished believed and re- 
peated in so clear a fashion that it could 
not be mistaken. If both bombast and 
bathos sometimes characterized his ad- 
dresses to the army, it was never at the 
expense of his meaning. 

The same lucidity marked all his instruc- 
tions to the Council of State when it was 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

preparing the Code of Laws. He would not 
discuss the laws proposed, in technical and 
equivocal language, but insisted on trans- 
lating them into the plainest, most evident 
terms. When it came to wording the laws, 
he still declared that they should be kept 
clear of all obscurities and ambiguities of 
meaning, so that the most illiterate of the 
people could comprehend them. 

While all of Napoleon's addresses to the 
army and to the people are imbued with a 
spirit of comradeship, those to generals, 
ambassadors, counselors of State, even to 
the members of his family, are imperious 
and inflexible in tone. The first impression 
they produce is that the author knows his 
own mind and is convinced of his ability to 
carry out his own plans, that he has no 
superstitious regard for titles, formalities, 
even for ties of blood, that he is superior 
to traditions, and will recognize the author- 
ity of no man who does not prove himself 
the stronger. From the beginning of his 
career, the audacity of this presumption, 
this confidence in himself, checked and 
often stifled opposition. There was, in the 
high tone of his communications, something 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

which compelled obedience, just as there 
was something in his bearing which silenced 
those who met him face to face. Augereau 
went in to his first interview with Napoleon 
sneering contemptuously at the idea of an 
untried commander being sent to the Army 
of Italy, but he backed out from his pres- 
ence, pale with dismay. " His first glance 
crushed me," he cried. In a similar way 
a first address from Napoleon bewildered 
and silenced critics and opponents. They 
were baffled by his apparent candor, by 
the serious way in which he took himself, 
and by the complete mastery he had of all 
the elements in a situation. There seemed 
to be no fact which had escaped him, no 
contingency he had not considered. A 
reading of the addresses shows that much 
of the impression of strength they produce 
is due to the fact that the writer has full 
knowledge of the business in hand. One 
sees from the way in which he criticizes, 
asks questions, and advises that he under- 
stands his subject. Of course, it is in 
military matters that it is particularly con- 
spicuous. Here he knows everything, the 
quality of cloth which ought to be used in 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

a soldier's uniform, the way to make a can- 
non, the kind of food which the horses 
should receive. Not only did he know 
what should be done, but he knew if it was 
done. His communications to officers are 
bewildering to a lay reader, because of the 
intimate knowledge they show of each 
man's actions, and the attention they give 
to what seems unimportant details. It 
is not difficult to understand and to share, 
in reading them, the superstitious feeling 
that many of Napoleon's associates had 
that he was " not as other men," that he 
had superhuman insight and faculties, else 
how could he know all, foresee all, do all. 

Napoleon's attitude towards his family 
was as imperious as that towards officers 
and statesmen. Unquestionably he had a 
warm affection for his mother and brothers 
and sisters, and even when a mere boy he 
always thought of them ; yet when money 
and power came to him he would do nothing 
for them save on condition that they obey 
absolutely his will ; when he became Em- 
peror this determination was firmer than 
ever. His refusal to acknowledge Jerome 
Bonaparte's marriage with Miss Paterson 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

is a familiar example of this. His letters 
to Louis, as King of Holland, to Joseph, as 
King of Spain, to Jerome, as King of West- 
phalia, are marked by an amazing absolu- 
tism. " All feelings of State yield to State 
reasons," he sent word to Joseph. *' I recog- 
nize as relatives only those who serve me. 
My fortune is not attached to the name of 
Bonaparte, but to that of Napoleon." As 
a rule, however, his letters to his family 
are as conspicuous for their common sense 
as for their despotism. 

When he reached the point in his career 
where first as consul and then as Emperor 
he must direct the framing of a new code 
of laws for France, must organize schools, 
beautify the capitol, revive industries, his 
addresses to the councils and officials 
charged with the duties, show the same 
knowledge of the principles involved and 
the same attention to details which distin- 
guish his military writings. 

All of the extraordinary stories of 
Napoleon's capacity for work, of his teem- 
ing brain, his incessant invention, which 
one finds in the memoirs of his secretaries 
and associates, are fully justified by his ad- 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

dresses. Take one of the days when he 
was at the height of his power and note 
the marvellous range over which his 
thoughts run. He gives direction for the 
mobilization of troops and the fortification 
of a town ; inquires of Cambaceres or 
Portalis the meaning of a law they have 
under consideration for the new Code, asks 
them why such a law is necessary, if it ex- 
isted under Louis XIV., why it should not 
be worded in this way instead of that ; 'he 
remembers a general who is compromising 
himself in a love affair, and counsels him 
at least to be discreet ; he scolds Josephine 
for extravagance ; orders a monument to 
the last general killed on the field of 
battle ; selects the names to be given to 
certain new streets and bridges of Paris. 

To the end of his career his addresses 
show the same vigor and range. Even 
those sent to the inhabitants and author- 
ities of Elbe are as fertile in schemes for 
improving the island as those addressed 
to the French people ; they show, too, the 
same attention to detail. At Elbe he even 
dictated, with ceremonious regard for the 
forms which become the ruler of a king- 



INTRODUCTION. XVll 

dom, the kind of bread to be fed his 
hunting-dogs. 

A study of these addresses shows that 
he never lost his exuberance of imagina- 
tion. However tragic his losses, he re- 
bounded at once, and on the very day that 
he dictated his last address to the French 
army, June 25, 181 5, he wrote his librarian 
to send him all the books on the United 
States which were to be obtained. He 
wanted to study up the country which he 
had already chosen for his future home. 

Even at St. Helena, sick and irritated as 
he was, his rnind was never quiet. He 
dictated in the five and a half years he 
lived on the island most of the matter in 
the journals of O'Meara, Las Cases, and 
Montholon, his essays on Caesar, Turenne, 
and Frederick, his commentaries and sev- 
eral less important works, — a respectable 
literary output, certainly, for five and a 
half years, and an excellent reply to the 
old charge that the fallen Emperor passed 
his imprisonment sulking. 

It is because the addresses of Napoleon 
are so characteristic of the man, because 
they reveal so clearly his ambitions, his 



XVlll INTRODUCTION. 

methods, his genius and his faults, that this 

selection from them is offered to the public. 

It is a sketch of Napoleon by himself ; an 

incomplete sketch, to be sure, but one in 

which every bold, sharp line is by his own 

hand. 

IDA M. TARBELL. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction vii 

Biographical Sketch .... xxiii 
Part I. The Campaign in Italy . . -27 

Address to the Army at the Beginning of the Campaign, 

March, 1796. 
Proclamation to the Army, May, 1796. 
Letter to " The Directory," May n, 1796. 
Letter to " The Directory, May 14, 1796. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers on Entering Milan, May 

15, 1796. 
Proclamation to the Troops on Entering Brescia, May 

28, 1796. 
Address to Soldiers During the Siege of Mantua, Nov. 

6, 1796. 
Address to the Troops on the Conclusion of the First 

Italian Campaign, March, 1797. 
Address to the Genoese, 1797. 

Extract from a Letter to the Directory, April, 1797. 
Address to Soldiers after the Signing of the Treaty of 

Campo Formio, October, 1797. 
Proclamation to the Cisalpine Republic, Nov. 17, 1797. 
Proclamation on Leaving the Troops at Rastadt, No- 
vember, 1797. 
Address to the Citizens after the Signing of the Treaty 

of Campo Formio, Dec. 10, 1787. 

Part II. The Egyptian Expedition . . 49 

Proclamation to the Troops on Entering Toulon, May 

9. 1798. 
Address to the Military Commissioners, May i6, 1798. 
Proclamation to the Troops on Embarking for Egypt, 

June, 1798. 
Proclamation to the Egyptians, July, 1798. 



XX CONTENTS. 

Letter to "The Directory," July 24, 1798. 

Order Respecting the Government of Egypt, July 27, 

1798. 
Letter to Tippoo Saib, Jan. 25, 1799. 
Proclamation to the Army on the Abandoning of the 

Siege of Acre, May, 1799. 
Proclamation to the Army on His Departure for France, 

August, 1799. 

Part III. Napoleon, First Consul . . 67 

Proclamation to the French People, Nov. lo, 1799. 
Proclamation to the Army of the East, November, 1799. 
Proclamation to the French before the Second Italian 

Campaign. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers before the Battle of 

Marengo, June, 1800. 
Letter to the Emperor of Austria, on the Field of 

Marengo, June, 1800. 
Order to Seize all English in France, Announced in 

the Monitezir, May, 1803. 

Part IV. Napoleon, Emperor of France . 77 

Letter to the Pope, 1804. 

Address to the Troops on Presenting the Colors, Dec. 3, 

1804. 
Letter to the King of England, Jan. 2, 1805. 
Conversation with Decier Regarding the Marriage of 

Jerome Bonaparte, May 6, 1805. 
Letter to Jerome Bonaparte, May 6, 1805. 
Address to the Senate, 1805. 
Proclamation to the Troops on the Commencement of 

the War of the Third Coalition, September, 1805. 
Address to the Austrians, after the Fall of Ulm, Oc- 
tober, 1805. 
Address to the Troops after the War of the Third 

Coalition, October, 1805. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers before the Battle of 

Austerlitz, Dec. i, 1805. 
Proclamation after the Battle of Austerlitz, Dec. 3, 1805. 
Address to the Soldiers on the Signing of Peace with 

Austria, Dec. 26, 1S05. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers, February, 1806. 
Address to the vSenate on Annexation of the Cisalpine 

Republic, 1806. 



CONTENTS. XXI 

To the Legislative Body before the Battle of Jena, 

October, iSo6. 
Address to the Captive Officers after the Battle of Jena, 

Oct. 15, 1806. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers before Entering Warsaw, 

Jan. I, 1807. 
To the King of Prussia, Entreating Peace after the 

Battle of Eyiau, February, 1807. 
Address to the Army on Its Return to Winter Quarters 

on the Vistula, 1807. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers after the Battle of Fried- 
land, June 24, 1S07. 
Letter to Champagny, Nov. 15, 1807. 
Proclamation to the Spaniards on the Abdication of 

Charles IV., June 2, 1808. 
Address to the Legislative Body before Lea\ang Paris 

for the Spanish Campaign, 1808. 
Letter to the Empei'or of Austria, October, 1808. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers during the March for 

Spain, 1S08. 
Summons to M. de Morla to Surrender Madrid, Dec. 3, 

1808. 
Proclamation to the Spanish People, December, 1808. 
Letter to the American Minister, Armstrong, 1809. 
Proclamation to the Soldiers before the Battle of Eck- 

muhl, April, 1809. 
Proclamation to the Troops at Ratisbon, April, 1809. 
Address to the Troops on Entering Vienna, May, 1809. 
Proclamation to the Hungarians, 1S09. 

Part V. The Fall of Napoleon . .119 

Address to the Troops on the Beginning of the Russian 

Campaign, May, 1812. 
Address to the Troops before the Battle of Borodino, 

Sept. 7, 1812. 
Letter to Alexander I., Emperor of Russia, Sept. 20, 

l8l2. 

Discourse at the Opening of the Legislative Body, Feb. 

14, 1813. 
Address to the Legislative Body, December, 1813. 
Address to the Guard, April 2, 18 14. 
Speech of Abdication, April 2, 1814. 
Farewell to the Old Guard, April 20, 1814. 
Proclamation to the French People on His Return from 

Elba, March 5, 18 15. 



XXU CONTENTS. 

Napoleon's Proclamation to the Army on His Return 

from Elba, March 5, 18 15. 
Proclamation on the Anniversary of the Battles of 

Marengo and Friedland, June 14, 1815. 
Proclamation to the Belgians, June 17, 1815. 
Napoleon's Proclamation to the French People on His 

Second Abdication, June 22, 18 15. 
Bonaparte's Protest, Written on Board the Bellerophon, 

Aug. 4, 1815. 

Napoleon's Will 145 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, 
Corsica, on August 15, 1769, the fourth child 
of Charles Bonaparte and Laetitia Romolino. 
He was educated in France at the Royal Mili- 
tary Schools of Brienne and of Paris, and 
when sixteen years old was appointed. second 
lieutenant in a French artillery regiment. 
From November, 1785, to May, 1792, he was 
alternately with his regiment and on leaves 
of absence in Corsica. Sympathizing with 
the French Revolution, he attempted to aid 
the Revolutionary party in Corsica against the 
party of the Corsican patriot, Paoli, but was 
defeated, and obliged with his family to fly 
to France. In October, 1793, he was given 
command of the artillery at the siege of 
Toulon, and distinguished himself in the cap- 
ture of the town. After a year and a half of 
military service in the south, he returned to 
Paris, and on the 13 th Vendemiaii-e (October 
5), 1795, he commanded the troops of the 
Convention against the sections. This led 
to his being appointed, in 1796, commander-in- 
chief of the Army of Italy. He went to his 



XXIV NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

post in March, 1796, and after a series of 
successful battles drove the Austrians into 
Mantua. Four attempts to relieve the city 
were made by the enemy, but failed, and in 
February, 1797, Wurmser, the Austrian gen- 
eral, surrendered. Bonaparte then drove the 
rest of the Austrian force from Italy, and in 
October, 1797, signed the treaty of Campo 
Formio. 

In May, 1798, he undertook the conquest 
of Egypt. He succeeded in entering the 
country and taking possession of Cairo and 
Alexandria, but on August i, at the Battle of 
the Nile, the French fleet was destroyed by 
the English under Nelson. A disastrous ex- 
pedition into Syria occupied the spring of 
1799. On returning to Egypt, Bonaparte 
received news of political disturbances in 
France, and leaving the army under Kle'ber 
he went to Paris, where, by the coup if etaf of 
the 1 8th and 19th Bnwiaire (November 9 and 
10) he became First Consul. During Bona- 
parte's absence in Egypt, war had again 
broken out between France and Austria, and 
the First Consul hurried against the enemy. 
The Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, 
again drove the Austrians from Italy, and 
February, 1801, peace was concluded. A 
treaty with England followed in March, 1802. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XXV 

Napoleon now took hold of the reorganization 
of P^rance with great energy, but in May, 1803, 
war again broke out between France and Eng- 
land, and the First Consul made elaborate 
preparations to invade England. While pre- 
paring for invasion he was crowned Emperor 
of the French on December 2, 1804. Before 
the plan against England could be carried out, 
Russia and Austria began hostilities, but the 
alliance was broken by the victory won by 
Napoleon at Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, 
and peace was signed at Presburg. The next 
year, 1806, there was war with Prussia and 
Russia. Napoleon won the Battle of Jena, 
October 14, entered Berlin, October 25, and 
issued the Berlin Decrees declaring a conti- 
nental blockade against England on Novem- 
ber 21. On February 8, 1807, he fought with 
the Russians the doubtful Battle of Eylau, and 
on June 14, the decisive Battle of Friedland. 
The Peace of Tilsit followed, on July 7. In 
1808 Napoleon attempted to take possession 
of Spain, but before the conquest was com- 
plete Austria declared war. The campaign 
of Wagram in the spring and summer of 1809 
subdued the Austrians. In December of 
1809, Napoleon divorced Josephine, by whom 
he had ceased to hope to have an heir to the 
throne, and in April, 1810, he married the 



xxvi napoleon's addresses. 

Austrian Princess, Marie Louise. The next 
year a son, the King of Rome, was born to 
them. The alliance between France and 
Russia was broken in 1812, and Napoleon 
invaded Russia. The campaign ended in a 
frightful retreat, the army being practically 
destroyed. Napoleon hastened to Paris, and 
by the spring of 18 13 had a new force in the 
field. After successful battles at Liitzen, 
Bautzen, and Dresden, he was routed com- 
pletely at Leipsic in October. The allies 
invaded France in January, 18 14, and a three 
months' campaign compelled Paris to capitu- 
late, and Napoleon to abdicate. The treaty 
with the allies gave the Emperor the island of 
Elbe for life, and hither he went at once, but 
in February, 18 15, he left the island for 
France, and was greeted joyfully by the French 
army and nation. Louis XVIII. was obliged 
to fly from the country, and Napoleon was 
restored to the throne. The allies immedi- 
ately attacked him, and at Waterloo, on June 
18, 18 1 5, he was defeated. He again resigned 
the throne, and on July 15 surrendered to the 
English, who sent him a captive to St. Helena, 
where he died on May 5, 182 1. Napoleon 
was buried on the island, but in 1840 his 
remains were removed to France, and placed 
in the Invalides. 



NAPOLEON'S ADDRESSES. 



SELECTIONS OF THE SPEECHES AND LETTERS OF 
NAPOLEON FROM I796 UNTIL HIS DEATH. 



PART I. 

THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY 

Address to the Ai'my at the Begm?iing of the 
Campaign^ March, lygd. 

" Soldiers, you are naked and ill - fed ! 
Government owes you much and can give 
you nothing. The patience and courage you 
have shown in the midst of these rocks are 
admirable ; but they gain you no renown ; no 
glory results to you from your endurance. It 
is my design to lead you into the most fertile 
plains of the world. Rich provinces and great 
cities will be in your power ; there you will 
find honor, glory, and wealth. Soldiers of 
Italy ! will you be wanting in courage or 
perseverance ? " 



28 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Army, May, I7g6. 

" Soldiers : You have in fifteen days gained 
six victories, taken twenty-one stand of colors, 
fifty -five pieces of cannon, and several for- 
tresses, and overrun the richest part of Pied- 
mont ; you have made 15,000 prisoners, and 
killed or wounded upwards of 10,000 men. 
Hitherto you have been fighting for barren 
rocks, made memorable by your valor, though 
useless to your country, but your exploits 
now equal those of the Armies of Holland 
and the Rhine. You were utterly destitute, 
and you have supplied all your wants. You 
have gained battles without cannon, passed 
rivers without bridges, performed forced 
marches without shoes, and bivouacked with- 
out strong liquors, and often without bread. 
None but Republican phalanxes, the soldiers 
of liberty, could have endured what you have 
done ; thanks to you, soldiers, for your per- 
severance ! Your grateful country owes its 
safety to you ; and if the taking of Toulon 
was an earnest of the immortal campaign of 
1794, your present victories foretell one more 
glorious. The two armies which lately at- 
tacked you in full confidence, now fly before 
you in consternation ; the perverse men- who 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 29 

laughed at your distress, and inwardly rejoiced 
at the triumph of your enemies, are now con- 
founded and trembling. But, soldiers, you 
have yet done nothing, for there still remains 
much to do. Neither Turin nor Milan are 
yours ; the ashes of the conquerors of Tar- 
quin are still trodden underfoot by the assas- 
sins of Basseville. It is said that there are 
some among you whose courage is shaken, 
and who would prefer returning to the sum- 
mits of the Alps and Apennines. No, I can- 
not believe it. The victors of Montenotte, 
Millesimo, Dego, and Mondovi are eager to 
extend the glory of the French name ! " 



30 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Letter to " The Directory." 

" Headquarters, Lodi, ) 
" May II, 1796. ) 

"" Citizen Directors : — I thought that the 
passage of the Po would be the most auda- 
cious performance of the campaign, the Battle 
of Millesimo the liveliest encounter, but I 
have yet to give you an account of the Battle 
of Lodi. 

" At three o'clock on the morning of the 
2 1 St, we pitched our headquarters at Casal. At 
nine o'clock, our vanguard encountered the 
enemy defending the approaches to Lodi. I 
immediately ordered all the cavalry to mount 
with four pieces of light artillery which had 
just arrived, drawn by the carriage horses of 
the lords of Plaisance. 

" The division of General Augereau, which 
had camped over night at Borghetto, and that 
of General Massena, which slept at Casal, 
were put in motion. Meantime, our van- 
guard had overturned all the posts of the 
enemy, and seized one of their cannon. We 
pursued the enemy into Lodi, they having 
already crossed the Adda by the bridge. 
Beaulieu with all his army was drawn up in 
battle array. Thirty set cannon defended the 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 3 1 

passage of the bridge. I formed all my artil- 
lery into a battery. The cannonading was 
very lively for several hours. 

" As soon as the army arrived it formed into 
a close colmnn with the second battalion of 
rifles at its head, followed by all the battalions 
of grenadiers. On the run, with cries of Vive 
la Republique^ they appeared on the bridge, 
which is over six hundred feet long. The 
enemy kept up a terrible fire. The head of 
the column almost seemed to waver. A 
moment's hesitation and all would have been 
lost. The Generals Berthier, Massena, Cer- 
voni, Dallemagne, the Brigadier-General Lan- 
nes, and Battalion - Commander Dupas felt 
this, and, rushing to the front, decided the fate 
of the day. 

"This redoubtable column overrode all op- 
position, breaking Beaulieu's order of battle, 
capturing all his artillery, and sowing on all 
sides seeds of terror, flight, and death. In 
the twinkling of an eye the enemy's army was 
dispersed. The Generals Rusca, Augereau, 
and Beyrand crossed as soon as their divi- 
sions arrived, and completed the victory. 
The cavalry crossed the Adda at a ford ; but 
the ford proving extremely bad, there was 
much delay, which prevented an engage- 
ment. 



32 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

" The enemy's cavalry tried charging our 
troops, in order to protect the retreat of their 
infantry, but our men were hard to frighten. 

" Nightfall and the extreme fatigue of the 
troops, many of whom had made more than 
ten leagues during the day, forced us to forego 
the pleasure of pursuit. 

" The enemy lost twenty pieces of cannon, 
and from two to three thousand killed, 
wounded or prisoners. We lost but 150 men, 
dead and wounded. 

" Citizen Latour, General Massena's captain 
aide-de-camp, received several sabre cuts. I 
want the place of battalion commander for 
this brave officer. 

" Citizen Marmont, my aide-de-camp briga- 
dier-general, had a horse shot under him. 

"Citizen Lemarois, my captain aide-de-camp, 
had his clothes riddled by balls. The courage 
of this young officer is equal to his activity. 

" If called upon to name all the soldiers who 
distinguished themselves on that extraordinary 
day, I should be obliged to name all the 
riflemen and grenadiers of the vanguard, and 
nearly all the officers of the staff. But I must 
not forget the intrepid Berthier, who was, in 
one day, gunner, cavalier, and grenadier. 
Brigadier -General Sugny, commandnig the 
artillery, conducted himself creditably. 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 33 

" Beaulieu fled with the remains of his army. 
Already Normandy may be considered as 
belonging to the Republic. At this moment 
Beaulieu is passing through the Venetian 
States, many of whose cities have closed their 
doors upon him. 

" I hope soon to send you the keys of Milan 
and Pavia. 

" Although, since the beginning of the 
campaign, we have had some pretty hot en- 
counters, which tlie army of the French 
Republic Jiave met witli audacity, not one 
of them has approached the terrible passage 
of the bridge at Lodi. 

" If we have lost but few^ men it is due to 
promptness of execution, and to the sudden 
effect produced upon the opposing army by 
the size and formidable fire of our intrepid 
column." 



34 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Letter to " The Directory. ^^ 

" Headquarters, Lodi. | 
"May 14, 1796. \ 

" Citizen Directors : — I think it most impol- 
itic to divide the ItaUan army into two sec- 
tions ; it is equally contrary to the interests of 
the Republic to put two generals in command. 

" The expedition against Livourne, Rome, 
and Naples is a small affair ; it can be ac- 
complished by arranging the divisions in 
echelon in such a manner as to enable them, 
by a retrograde march, to appear in force 
against the Austrians, and threaten to hem 
them in at the slightest movement on their part. 

" For this it is not only necessary to have one 
general, but he should have nothing to hinder 
him in his march or in his operations. I have 
conducted the campaign without consulting 
any one. I should have accomplished nothing 
worth the trouble had I been obliged to 
reconcile my ideas with those of another. I 
have gained some advantages over very supe- 
rior forces while in an almost destitute con- 
dition ; because I was persuaded of your 
entire confidence in me, mv moves were as 
prompt as my thoughts. 

" If you fetter me on all sides ; if it is nee- 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 35 

essary for me to confer with the commis- 
sioners of the Government regarding each 
step ; if they have the right to change my 
movements, to send me troops or withdraw 
them at their will, then look for no good. 

" If you reduce your power by dividing your 
forces, if you break the unity of the military 
outline in Italy, with grief I tell you, you will 
have lost the most favorable occasion for 
bringing Italy to terms. 

" In the present condition of the affairs of 
the Republic in Italy, it is indispensable for 
you to have a general in whom you have 
entire confidence. If it is not I, I make no 
complaint, I shall only strive to redouble my 
zeal in order to merit your esteem in the past 
that you may confide to me. Every one has 
his own manner of conducting a war. Gen- 
eral Keelerman has had more experience and 
will do better than I, but together we would 
make a dire failure. 

" I cannot render our country any essential 
service unless invested with your absolute and 
entire confidence. It requires much courage 
on my part to write you in this w^ay, I could 
so easily be accused of pride and ambition. 
But I owe the expression of all my opinions 
on the subject to one whose many tokens of 
esteem I shall never forget." 



36 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Soldiers on Entering Milan^ 
May Z5, 1796. 

" Soldiers : You have rushed Uke a torrent 
from the top of the Apennmes ; you have 
overthrown and scattered all that opposed your 
march. Piedmont, delivered from Austrian 
tyranny, indulges her natural sentiments of 
peace and friendship towards France. Milan 
is yours, and the Republican flag waves 
throughout Lombardy. The Dukes of Parma 
and Modena owe their political existence to 
your generosity alone. The army which so 
proudly threatened you can find no barrier to 
protect it against your courage ; neither the 
Po, the Ticino, nor the Adda could stop you 
for a single day. These vaunted bulwarks of 
Italy opposed you in vain ; you passed them 
as rapidly as the Apennines. These great 
successes have filled the heart of your coun- 
try with joy. Your representatives have or- 
dered a festival to commemorate your victo- 
ries, which has been held in every district of 
the Republic. There your fathers, your moth- 
ers, your wives, sisters, and mistresses rejoiced 
in your good fortune, and proudly boasted of 
belonging to you. Yes, soldiers, you have 
done much, — but remains there nothing more 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 37 

to do ? Shall it be said of us that we knew 
how to conquer, but not how to make use of 
victory ? Shall posterity reproach us with 
having found Capau in Lombardy ? But I 
see you already hasten to arms. An effemi- 
nate repose is tedious to you ; the days which 
are lost to glory are lost to your happiness. 
Well, then, let us set forth ! We have still 
forced marches to make, enemies to subdue, 
laurels to gather, injuries to revenge. Let 
those who have sharpened the daggers of civil 
war in France, who have basely murdered our 
ministers, and burnt our ships at Toulon, 
tremble ! The hour of vengeance has struck ; 
but let the people of all countries be free 
from apprehension ; we are the friends of the 
people everywhere, and those great men whom 
we have taken for our models. To restore 
the capitol, to replace the statues of the heroes 
who rendered it illustrious, to rouse the Roman 
people, stupefied by several ages of slavery, — 
such will be the fruit of our victories ; they 
will form an era for posterity ; you will have 
the immortal glory of changing the face of 
the finest part of Europe. The French people, 
free and respected by the whole world, will 
give to Europe a glorious peace, which will 
indemnify them for the sacrifices of every 
kind which for the last six years they have 



38 napoleon's addresses. 

been making. You will then return to your 
homes and your country. Men will say as 
they point you out, ' He belonged to the army 
of Italy y 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 39 



Proclamation to the T?-oops 07i Entering B?'escia, 
May 28, I7g6. 

" It is to deliver the finest country in Eu- 
rope from the iron yoke of the proud House 
of Austria, that the French army lias braved 
the most formidable obstacles. Victory, siding 
with justice, has crowned its eiforts with suc- 
cess, the wreck of the enemy's army has 
retreated behind the Mincio. In order to 
pursue them, the French army enters the ter- 
ritory of the Republic of Venice ; but it will 
not forget that the two Republics are united 
by ancient friendship. Religion, government, 
and customs shall be respected. Let the peo- 
ple be free from apprehension, the severest 
discipline will be kept up ; whatever the army 
is supplied with shall be punctually paid for in 
money. The general-in-chief invites the offi- 
cers of the Republic of Venice, the magis- 
trates, and priests to make known his senti- 
ments to the people, in order that the friend- 
ship which has so long subsisted between the 
two nations may be cemented by confidence. 
Faithful in the path of honor as in that of 
victory, the French soldier is terrible only to 
the enemies of his liberty and his Govern- 
ment." 



40 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Address to Soldiers During the Siege of 
Mantua^ Nov. 6, lygd. 

" Soldiers : I am not satisfied with you ; you 
have shown neither bravery, discipline, nor 
perseverance ; no position could rally you ; 
you abandoned yourselves to a panic-terror ; 
you suffered yourselves to be driven from 
situations where a handful of brave men 
might have stopped an army. Soldiers of 
the 39th and 85 th, you are not French sol- 
diers. Quartermaster -general, let it be in- 
scribed on their colors, ' jyiey no lo7iger form 
part of the Army of Italy I ' " 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 41 



Address to the Troops on the Conchismi of 
the First Italian Campaign., March, i7Qy. 

" Soldiers : The campaign just ended has 
given you imperishable renown. You ha\'e 
been victorious in fourteen pitched battles 
and seventy actions. You have taken more 
than a hundred thousand prisoners, five hun- 
dred field -pieces, two thousand heavy guns, 
and four pontoon trains. You have main- 
tained the army during the whole campaign. 
In addition to this, you have sent six millions 
of dollars to the public treasury, and have 
enriched the National Museum with three 
hundred masterpieces of the arts of ancient 
and modern Italy, which it has required thirty 
centuries to produce. You have conquered 
the finest countries in Europe. The French 
flag waves for the first time upon the Adriatic 
opposite to Macedon, the native country of 
Alexander. Still higher destinies await you. 
I know that you will not prove unworthy of 
them. Of all the foes that conspired to stifle 
the Republic in its birth, the Austrian Em- 
peror alone remains before you. To obtain 
peace we must seek it in the heart of his 
hereditary State. You will there find a brave 
people, whose religion and customs you will 



42 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

respect, and whose prosperity you will hold 
sacred. Remember that it is liberty you 
carry to the brave Hungarian nation." 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 43 

Addj'ess to the Genoese, ^797- 

" I will respond, citizens, to the confidence 
you have reposed in me. It is not enough 
that you refrain from hostility to religion. 
You should do nothing which can cause in- 
quietude to tender consciences. To exclude 
the nobles from any public office, is an act of 
extreme injustice. You thus repeat the wrong 
which you condemn in them. Why are you 
people of Genoa so changed ? Their first 
impulses of fraternal kindness have been 
succeeded by terror and fear. Remember 
that the priests were the first who rallied 
around the tree of liberty. They first told 
you that the morality of the gospel is demo- 
cratic. Men have taken advantage of the 
faults, perhaps of the crimes of individual 
priests, to unite against Christianity. You 
have proscribed without discrimination. 
When a State becomes accustomed to con- 
demn without hearing, to applaud a discourse 
because it is impassioned ; when exaggeration 
and madness are called virtue, moderation 
and equity designated as crimes, that State is 
near its ruin. Believe me, I shall consider 
that one of the happiest moments of my life 
in which I hear that the people of Genoa are, 
united among themselves and live happily. " 



44 ' NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Extract from a Letter to the Directory^ 
April, lygy. 

" From these different posts we shall com- 
mand the Mediterranean, we shall keep an 
eye on the Ottoman Empire, which is crum- 
bling to pieces, and we shall have it in our 
power to render the dominion of the ocean 
almost useless to the English. They have 
possession of the Cape of Good Hope. We 
can do without it. Let us occupy Egypt. We 
shall be in the direct road for India. It will 
be easy for us to found there one of the finest 
colonies in the world. // is in Egypt that 7ve 
must attack Ejigland^ 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 45 



Address to Soldiers after the Signing of the 
Treaty of Campo Forinio^ October, i797- 

" Soldiers : I set out to-morrow for Germany. 
Separated from the army, I shall sigh for the 
moment of my rejoining it, and brave fresh 
dangers. Whatever post Government may 
assign to the soldiers of the Army of Italy, 
they will always be the worthy supporters of 
liberty and of the glory of the French name. 
Soldiers, when you talk of the Princes you 
have conquered, of the nations you have set 
free, and the battles you have fought in two 
campaigns, say : /;/ the next two ive shall do 
still more ! " 



46 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Cisalpine Republic, Nov. 
17, 1797. 

" We have given you liberty. Take care 
you preserve it. To be worthy of your destiny 
make only discreet and honorable laws, and 
cause them to be executed with energy. 
Favor the diffusion of knowledge, and respect 
religion. Compose your battalions not of 
disreputable men, but with citizens imbued 
with the principles of the Republic, and 
closely linked with the prosperity. You have 
need to impress yourselves with the feelings 
of your strength, and with the dignity which 
befits the free man. Divided and bowed 
by ages of tyranny, you could not alone 
have achieved your independence. In a few 
years, if true to yourselves, no nation will be 
strong enough to wrest liberty from you. Till 
then the great nation will protect you." 



THE CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 47 



Proclamation on Leaving the Troops at Rastadt^ 
November^ lygy. 

" Soldiers : I leave you to - morrow. In 
separating myself from the army I am con- 
soled with the thought that I shall soon meet 
you again, and engage with you in new enter- 
prises. Soldiers, when conversing among 
yourselves of the kings you have vanquished, 
of the people upon whom you have conferred 
liberty, of the victories you have won in two 
campaigns, say, ' In the next two we will 
accomplish still more.' " 



48 napoleon's addresses. 



Address to the Citizens after the Stgiiing of the 
Treaty of Campo Formio^ Dec. 10, 17 8y. 

" Citizens : The French people, in order to 
be free, had kings to combat. To obtain a 
constitution founded on reason it had the 
prejudices of eighteen centuries to overcome. 
Priestcraft, feudalism, despotism, have suc- 
cessively, for two thousand years, governed 
Europe. From the peace you have just con- 
cluded dates the era of representative govern- 
ments. You have succeeded in organizing the 
great nation, whose vast territory is circum- 
scribed only because nature herself has fixed 
its limits. You have done more. The two 
finest countries in Europe, formerly as re- 
nowned for the arts, the sciences, and the 
illustrious men, whose cradle they were, see 
with the greatest hopes genius and freedom 
issuing from the tomb of their ancestors. I 
have the honor to deliver to you the treaty 
signed at Campo Formio, and ratified by the 
Emperor. Peace secures the liberty, the 
prosperity, and the glory of the Republic. As 
soon as the happiness of France is secured by 
the best organic laws, the whole of Europe 
will be free." 



PART II. 

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 

Proclamation to the Troops on Entering Toulon^ 
May g, lygS. 

" Soldiers : You are one of the wings of the 
Army of England. You have made war in 
mountains, plains, and cities. It remains to 
make it on the ocean. The Roman legions, 
whom you have often imitated, but never yet 
equaled, combated Carthage, by turns, on the 
seas and on the plains of Zama. Victory 
never deserted their standards, because they 
never ceased to be brave, patient, and united. 
Soldiers, the eyes of Europe are upon you. 
You have great destinies to accomplish, 
battles to fight, dangers and fatigues to over- 
come. You are about to do more than you 
have yet done, for the prosperity of your 
country, the happiness of man, and for your 
own glory." 



50 napoleon's addresses. 



Address to the Military Commissioners, 
May i6, 1798. 

" Bonaparte, Member of the National Insti- 
tute, TO THE Military Commissioners of 
the Ninth Division, established by the 

LAW OF THE I9TH FrUCTIDOR. 

" I have learned, citizens, with deep regret, 
that an old man, between seventy and eighty 
years of age, and some unfortunate women, 
in a state of pregnancy, or surrounded by 
children of tender age, have been shot on the 
charge of emigration. 

" Have the soldiers of liberty become exe- 
cutioners ? Can the mercy which they have 
exercised even in the fury of the battle be 
extinct in their hearts ? 

"The law of the 19th Fructidor was a 
measure of public safety. Its object was to 
reach conspirators, not women and aged men. 

" I therefore exhort you, citizens, whenever 
the law brings to your tribunals women or old 
men, to declare that in the field of battle you 
have respected the women and old men of 
your enemies. 

" The officer who signs a sentence against 
a person incapable of bearing arms is a 
coward." 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 5 1 



Proclamation to the Troops on Embarking for 
Egypt, June, lygS. 

" Headquarters on board the Orient, | 
" the 4th Messidor, year 6. J 

" Bonaparte, Member of the National Insti- 
tute, General-in-Chief. 

" Soldiers : — You are about to undertake a 
conquest the effects of which, on civilization 
and commerce, are incalculable. The blow 
you are about to give to England will be the 
best aimed, the most sensibly felt, she can 
receive until the time arrives when you can 
give her her death-blow. 

" We must make some fatiguing marches ; we 
must fight several battles ; we shall succeed in 
all we undertake. The destinies are with us. 
The Mameluke beys, who favor exclusively 
English commerce, whose extortions oppress 
our merchants, and who tyrannize over the 
unfortunate inhabitants of the Nile, a few 
days after our arrival will no longer exist. 

" The people amongst whom we are going to 
live are Mahometans. The first article of 
their faith is this : ' There is but one God 
and Mahomet is His prophet.' Do not con- 
tradict them, Behave to them as you be- 



52 napoleon's addresses. 

haved to the Jews — to the Italians. Pay 
respect to their muftis and their imaums, as 
you did to the rabbis and the bishops. Ex- 
tend to the ceremonies prescribed by the 
Koran and the mosques the same toleration 
which you showed to the synagogues, to the 
religion of Moses and of Jesus Christ. 

" The Roman legions protect all religions. 
You will here find customs different from 
those of Europe. You must accommodate 
yourselves to them. The people amongst 
whom we are about to mix differ from us in 
the treatment of women ; but in all countries 
he who violates is a monster. Pillage only 
enriches a small number of men ; it dishonors 
us ; it destroys our resources ; it converts 
into enemies the people whom it is our inter- 
est to have for friends. 

" The first town we shall come to was built 
by Alexander. At every step we shall meet 
with grand recollections, worthy of exciting 
the emulation of Frenchmen." 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 53 



Proclamation to the Egyptians^ J^^b'-, ^79^- 

" People of Egypt : You will be told by our 
enemies, that I am come to destroy your 
religion. Believe them not. Tell them that 
I am come to restore your rights, punish your 
usurpers, and raise the true worship of Ma- 
homet. Tell them that I venerate, more 
than I do the Mamelukes, God, His prophet, 
and the Koran. Tell them that all men are 
equal in the sight of God ; that wisdom, 
talents, and virtue alone constitute the differ- 
ence between them. And what are the 
virtues which distinguish the Mamelukes, 
that entitle them to appropriate all the enjoy- 
ments of life to themselves ? If Egypt is 
their farm, let them show their lease, from 
God, by wdiich they hold it. Is there a fine 
estate ? It belongs to the Mamelukes. Is 
there a beautiful slave, a fine horse, a good 
house ? All belong to the Mamelukes. But 
God is just and merciful, and He hath or- 
dained that the Empire of the Mamelukes 
shall come to an end. Thrice happy those 
who shall side with us ; they shall prosper in 
their fortune and their rank. Happy they 
who shall be neutral ; they will have time to 
become acquainted with us, and will range 



54 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

themselves upon our side. But woe, threefold 
woe, to those who shall arm for the Mame- 
lukes and fight against us ! For them there 
will be no hope ; they shall perish." 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 55 



Letter to " The Directoiy.^'' 

" Headquarters, Cairo, |^ 
"6 Tliermidor, year 4. (24 July, 1798.) \ 

" Citizen Directors : — On the morning of 
the 2d Thermidor we caught sight of the 
Pyramids. 

"On the evening of the 2d, we were within 
six leagues of Cairo, and I learned that the 
twenty-three beys, with all their forces, were 
intrenched at Embabeh, and that their in- 
trenchments were armed by more than sixty 
pieces of cannon. 

" BATTLE OF THE PYRAMIDS. 

"On the 3d, at dawn, we encountered their 
vanguard, which we drove from village to 
village. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon we 
arrived before their intrenchments and found 
ourselves in the presence of the enemy. 

"I ordered the divisions of Generals Desaix 
and Reynier to take up their position on the 
right, between Gyseh and Embabeh, in such 
a manner as to cut off the enemy's commu- 
nication with upper Egypt, which is their 
natural retreat. The position of the army 
was the same as at Battle of Chobiakhyt. 



56 napoleon's addresses. 

" No sooner had Mourad-Bey perceived Gen- 
eral Desaix's movements, than he resolved 
to charge him. He despatched one of his 
bravest beys with a corps of picked men, 
who, with lightning rapidity, charged the two 
divisions. They were allowed to get within 
fifty feet, then we greeted them with a shower 
of balls and grape-shot which left many of 
their number dead on the battle-field. They 
dashed into the space formed by the two 
divisions, where they were received by a 
double fire which completed their defeat. 

" I seized the opportunity and ordered Gen- 
eral Bon's division, which was on the Nile, to 
prepare for an attack on the enemy's intrench- 
ments. I ordered General Menon's division, 
which was commanded by General Vial, to 
bear down between the corps that had just 
charged us and the intrenchments, in such a 
manner as to accomplish the triple end of, — 

" Preventing this corps reentering their 
intrenchments. 

" Cutting off the retreat of those who occu- 
pied them. 

" And finally, if necessary, of attacking the 
intrenchments on the left. 

" Directly the generals. Vial and Bon, were 
in position, they ordered the first and third 
divisions of each battalion to draw up in col- 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 57 

umns of attack, while the second and fourth 
retained their former position, forming a 
square battalion, now only three deep, while 
they advanced to support the columns of 
attack. 

" General Bon's columns of attack, com- 
manded by the brave General Rampon, threw 
themselves upon the intrenchments with their 
usual impetuosity, in spite of the fire from a 
large quantity of artillery, when suddenly the 
Mamelukes made a charge. They emerged 
from their intrenchments on a full gallop, but 
our columns had time to come to a halt, to 
face all sides, and receive them on the points 
of their bayonets, or by a shower of balls. 
In an instant the field was strewn with the 
enemy. 

" Our troops soon razed their intrenchments. 
The Mamelukes fled, precipitating themselves 
en masse upon their left, but General Vial was 
ready for them. They were obliged to pass 
within five feet of a battalion of our riflemen, 
and the butchery was awful. A large number 
threw themselves into the Nile and were 
drowned. 

" After the numerous combats and battles 
that my troops have gained over superior 
forces, I should not think of praising their 
conduct and their sang-froid on this occasion, 



58 napoleon's addresses. 

v/ere it not that this new method of warfare 
has required, on their part, a patience which 
contrasts with French impetuosity. Had they 
given way to their ardor they could not have 
gained the victory, which was obtainable only 
by great coolness and patience. 

" The Mamelukes' cavalry displayed great 
bravery ; they defended their fortunes, and 
upon every one of them our soldiers found 
from three to five hundred louis. 

" All the luxury of these people is in their 
horses and their accoutrements ; their houses 
are pitiable. 

" It would be difficult to find a land more 
fertile, and a people more miserable, more 
ignorant, more abject. They prefer one of 
our soldier's buttons to a six-franc piece. 

" In the villages they do not even know the 
sight of a pair of scissors. Their houses are 
made of a little mud. Their sole furniture is 
a mat of straw and two or three earthen pots. 
They eat and burn very little as a general 
thing. They do not know the use of mills ; 
consequently, we frequently bivouacked on 
stalks of wheat without being able to obtain 
any flour. We live on vegetables and cattle. 
The little grain they do use, they grind into 
flour with stones, and in some of the large 
villages they have mills turned by oxen. 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 59 

" We are constantly annoyed by clouds of 
Arabs ; they are the greatest robbers and 
the greatest rascals on the face of the earth, 
assassinating alike Turks and French, or any 
one who falls in their way. 

" Brigadier-General Mireur and several aides- 
de-camp and oiificers of the staff have been 
assassinated by these wretches. They lie in 
ambush behind banks and ditches on their 
excellent little horses, and woe to him who 
ventures to wander a hundred feet from the 
columns. 

" By a fatality that I have often observed to 
follow men whose last hour approaches. Gen- 
eral Mireur went alone, in spite of the remon- 
strances of the main -guard, to a little elevation 
about two hundred feet from the camp. Be- 
hind it were stationed three Bedouins who 
murdered him. 

" The Republic has met with a real loss. He 
was one of the bravest generals I have ever 
known. 

" There is very little coin in this country, not 
enough to pay the army. There is plenty of 
wheat, rice, vegetables, and cattle. The Re- 
public could not have a colony better suited 
to its needs, nor of a richer soil. The climate 
is very healthy, owing to the cool nights. 

" In spite of fifteen days' march, and all kinds 



6o napoleon's addresses. 

of fatigue, the absolute deprivation of wine, in 
fact, of everything that could alleviate fatigue, 
we have no one on the sick list. The soldiers 
have found a great resource in the posteques^ 
a kind of watermelon that is very abundant 
here." 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 6 1 



Order Respecting the Govenimeiit of Egypt, 
July 27, lygS. 

" Headquarters, Cairo, ) 
" 9th Thermidol, year 6. \ 

"Bonaparte, Member of the National Insti- 
tute, General-in-Chief, Orders: 

" Article I. There shall be in each province 
of Egypt a divan, composed of seven individ- 
uals, whose duty it will be to superintend the 
interests of the province ; to communicate to 
me any complaints that may be made ; to pre- 
vent warfare among the different villages ; to 
apprehend and punish criminals (for which 
purpose they may demand assistance from the 
French commandant) ; and to take every 
opportunity of enlightening the people. 

" Art. II. There shall be in each province 
an aga of the Janizaries, maintaining constant 
communication with the French commandant. 
He shall have with him a company of sixty 
armed natives, whom he may take wherever 
he pleases, for the maintenance of good order, 
subordination, and tranquillity. 

" Art. III. There shall be in each province 
an intendant, whose business will be to levy 
the Miri, the feddan, and the other contri- 



62 napoleon's addresses. 

butions which formerly belonged to the 
Mamelukes, but which now belong to the 
French Republic. The intendants shall have 
as many agents as may be necessary. 

" Art. IV. The said intendant shall have a 
French agent to correspond with the Finance 
Department, and to execute all the orders he 
may receive." 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 63 



Letter to Tippoo Sail\ Jan. 25, ijgg. 

" You are, of course, already informed of my 
arrival on the banks of the Red Sea, with a 
numerous and invincible army. Eager to 
deliver you from the iron yoke of England, 
I hasten to request that you will send me, by 
the way of Muscate or Mocha, an account of the 
political situation in which you are. I also 
wish that you would send to Suez, or Grand 
Cairo, some able man, in your confidence, with 
whom I may confer." 



64 napoleon's addresses. 



Pj'oclamation to the Army^ on the Abandoning of 
the Siege of Acre, May, 17 gg. 

" Soldiers : You have traversed the desert 
which separates Asia from Africa, with the 
rapidity of an Arab force. The army, which 
was on its march to invade Egypt, is destroyed. 
You have taken its general, its field-artillery, 
camels, and baggage. You have captured all 
the fortified posts, which secure the wells of 
the desert. You have dispersed, at Mount 
Tabor, those swarms of brigands, collected 
from all parts of Asia, hoping to share the 
plunder of Egypt. The thirty ships, which 
twelve days since you saw enter the port 
of Acre, were destined for an attack upon 
Alexandria. But you compelled them to 
hasten to the relief of Acre. Several of their 
standards will contribute to adorn your trium- 
phal entry into Egypt. After having main- 
tained the war with a handful of men, during 
three months, in the heart of Syria, taken 
forty pieces of cannon, fifty stands of colors, 
six thousand prisoners, and captured or de- 
stroyed the fortifications of Gaza, Jaffa, and 
Acre, we prepare to return to Egypt, where, 
by a threatened invasion, our presence is 
imperiously demanded. A few days longer 



THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 65 

might give you the hope of taking the Pacha 
in his palace. But at this season the palace 
of Acre is not worth the loss of three days, 
nor the loss of those brave soldiers who 
would consequently fall, and who are necessary 
for more essential services. Soldiers, we 
have yet a toilsome and a perilous task to 
perform. After having by this campaign 
secured ourselves from attacks from the east- 
ward, it will perhaps be necessary to repel the 
efforts which may be made from the west." 



66 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Ariny on his Departure for 
France^ August^ lygg. 

" The news from Europe has determined me 
to proceed to France. I leave the command 
of the army to General Kleber. The army 
shall hear from me forthwith ; at present I can 
say no more. It costs me much pain to quit 
troops to whom I am so strongly attached. 
But my absence will be but temporary, and 
the general I leave in command has the 
confidence of the Government as well as 
mine." 



PART III. 

NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL. 

Proclamation to the French People^ Nov. lO, 17QQ. 

19th Brumaire, 11 o'clock, p. m, 
" Frenchmen : On my return to France I 
found division reigning amongst all the author- 
ities. They agreed only on this single point, 
that the Constitution was half destroyed, and 
was unable to protect liberty. 

" Each party in turn came to me, confided to 
me their designs, imparted their secrets, and 
requested my support. I refused to be the 
man of a party. 

" The Council of the Ancients appealed to 
me. I answered their appeal. A plan of general 
restoration had been concerted by men whom 
the nation has been accustomed to regard as 
the defenders of liberty, equality, and prop- 
erty. This plan required calm and free delib- 
eration, exempt from all influence and all fear. 
The Ancients resolved, therefore, upon the 
removal of the legislative bodies to St. Cloud. 



6S napoleon's addresses. 

They placed at my disposal the force neces- 
sary to secure their independence. I was 
bound, in duty to my fellow citizens, to the 
soldiers perishing in our armies, and to the 
national glory, acquired at the cost of so much 
blood, to accept the command. 

"The councils assembled at St. Cloud. Re- 
publican troops guaranteed their safety from 
without, but assassins created terror within. 
Many members of the Council of the Five 
Hundred, armed with stilettos and pistols, 
spread menaces of death around them. 

" The plans which ought to have been devel- 
oped were withheld. The majority of the 
council was rendered inefficient ; the boldest 
orators were disconcerted, and the inutility of 
submitting any salutary proposition was quite 
evident. 

" I proceeded, filled with indignation and 
grief, to the Council of the Ancients. 1 be- 
sought them to carry their noble designs into 
execution. I directed their attention to the 
evils of the nation, which were their motives 
for conceiving those designs. They concurred 
in giving me new proofs of their uniform good- 
will. 

" I presented myself before the Council of 
the Five Hundred, alone, unarmed, my head 
uncovered, just as the Ancients had received 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL. 69 

and applauded me. My object was to restore 
to the majority the expression of its will, and 
to secure to it its power. 

" The stilettos which had menaced the depu- 
ties were instantly raised against their deliv- 
erer. Twenty assassins rushed upon me, and 
aimed at my breast. The grenadiers of the 
legislative body, whom I had left at the door 
of the hall, ran forward, and placed themselves 
between me and the assassins. One of these 
brave grenadiers (Thome) had his clothes 
pierced by a stiletto. They bore me off. 

" At the same moment cries of ' Outlaw him ' 
were raised against the defender of the law. 
It was the horrid cry of assassins against the 
power destined to repress them. 

" They crowded around the President, utter- 
ing threats. With arms in their hands they 
commanded him to declare ' the outlawry.' I 
was informed of this. I ordered him to be 
rescued from their fury, and six grenadiers of 
the legislative body brought him out. Imme- 
diately afterwards some grenadiers of the 
legislative body charged into the hall and 
cleared it. 

"The factions, intimidated, dispersed and 
fled. The majority, freed from their assaults, 
returned freely and peaceably into the hall, 
listened to the propositions made for the pub- 



70 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

lie safety, deliberated, and drew up the salu- 
tary resolution which will become the new and 
provisional law of the Republic. 

" Frenchmen, you doubtless recognize in this 
conduct the zeal of a soldier of liberty, of a 
citizen devoted to the Republic. Conserva- 
tive, tutelary, and liberal ideas resumed their 
authority upon the dispersion of the factions, 
who domineered in the councils, and who, in 
rendering themselves the most odious of men, 
did not cease to be the most contemptible." 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL. 71 



Proclamation to the A?yny of the East^ 
Novembe7-^ ijgg. 

" Soldiers : The Consuls of the French 
Republic frequently direct their attention to 
the Army of the East. 

" France acknowledged all the influence of 
your conquests on the restoration of her trade 
and civilization of the world. 

"The eyes of all Europe are upon you, and 
in thought I am often with you. 

" In whatsoever situation the chances of war 
may place you, prove yourselves still the 
soldiers of Rivoli and Aboukir — you will be 
invincible. 

" Place in Kleber the boundless confidence 
you placed in me. He deserves it. 

" Soldiers, think of the day when you will 
return victorious to the sacred territory of 
France. That will be a glorious day for this 
whole nation." 



72 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Frejich before the Second 
Italian Campaign. 

" Frenchmen : You have been anxious for 
peace. Your Government has desired it with 
still greater ardor. Its first efforts, its con- 
stant wishes, have been for its attainment. 
The English Ministry has exposed the secret 
of its iniquitous policy. It wishes to dismem- 
ber France, to destroy its commerce, and 
either to erase it from the map of Europe, or 
to degrade it to a secondary power. England 
is willing to embroil all the nations of the 
Continent in hostility with each other, that 
she may enrich herself with the spoils, and 
gain possession of the trade of the world. 
For the attainment of this object she scatters 
her gold, becomes prodigal of her promises, 
and multiplies her intrigues." 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL. 73 



Proclamatifln to the Soldiers before the Battle 
of Marengo, June, 1800. 

" Soldiers : When we began our march, one 
department of France was in the hands of the 
enemy. Consternation pervaded the south of 
the Repubhc. You advanced. Joy and hope 
in our country have succeeded to consterna- 
tion and fear. The enemy, terror - struck, 
seeks only to regain his frontiers. You have 
taken his hospitals, his magazines, his reserve 
parks. The first act of the campaign is fin- 
ished. Millions of men address you in 
strains of praise. But shall we allow our 
audacious enemies to violate with impunity 
the territory of the Republic ? Will you per- 
mit the army to escape which has carried 
terror into your families ? You will not. 
March, then, to meet him. Tear from his 
brows the laurels he has won. Teach the 
world that a malediction attends those that 
violate the territory of the Great People. 
The result of our efforts will be unclouded 
glory, and a durable peace." 



74 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Letter to the Emperor of Austria^ on the Field 
of Marengo, fune, 1800. 

" Sire : — It is on the field of battle, amid the 
sufferings of a multitude of wounded, and 
surrounded by fifteen thousand corpses, that I 
beseech your Majesty to listen to the voice of 
humanity, and not to suffer two brave nations 
to cut each other's throats for interests not 
their own. It is my part to press this upon 
your Majesty, being upon the very theatre of 
war. Your Majesty's heart can not feel it so 
keenly as does mine.- 

" For what are you fighting ? For religion ? 
Then make war on the Russians and the 
English, who are the enemies of your faith. 
Do you wish to guard against revolutionary 
principles ? It is this very war which has 
extended them over half the continent, by 
extending the conquests of France. The 
continuance of the war can not fail to diffuse 
them still further. Is it for the balance of 
Europe ? The English threaten that balance 
far more than does France, for they have 
become the masters and the tyrants of com- 
merce, and are beyond the reach of resistance. 
Is it to secure the interests of the House of 
Austria } Let us then execute the Treaty of 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL. 75 

Campo Formio, which secures to your Majesty 
large indemnities in compensation for the 
provinces lost in the Netherlands, and secures 
them to you where you most wish to obtain 
them, that is, in Italy. Your Majesty may 
send negotiators whither you will, and we will 
add to the Treaty of Campo Formio stipula- 
tions calculated to assure you of the con- 
tinued existence of the secondary States, all 
of which the French Republic is accused of 
having shapen. Upon these conditions peace 
is made if you will. Let us make the armis- 
tice general for all the armies, and enter into 
negotiations instantly." 



76 napoleon's addresses. 



Order to Seize all English i?i France, Announced 
in the Moniteur, May, 180J. 

" The Government of the Republic, having 
heard read, by tlie Minister of Marine and 
Colonies, a despatch from the maritime prefect 
at Brest, announcing that two English frigates 
had taken two merchant vessels in the Bay of 
Andrieu, without any previous declaration of 
war, and in manifest violation of the law of 
nations, — 

" All the English, from the ages of eighteen 
to sixty, or holding any commission from his 
Britannic Majesty, who are at present in 
France, shall immediately be constituted pris- 
oners of war, to answer for those citizens of 
the Republic who may have been arrested 
and made prisoners by the vessels or subjects 
of his Britannic Majesty previous to any 
declaration of hostilities." 



PART IV. 

NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 

Letter to the Pope, 1804. 

" Most Holy Father : — The happy effect 
produced upon the character and moraUty of 
my people by the reestablishment of reUgion 
induces me to beg your Holiness to give me 
a new proof of your interest in my destiny, 
and in that of this great nation, in one of the 
most important conjunctures presented in the 
annals of the world. I beg you to come and 
give, to the highest degree, a religious char- 
acter to the anointing and coronation of the 
first Emperor of the French. That ceremony 
will acquire a new lustre by being performed 
by your Holiness in person. It will bring 
down upon our people, and yourself, the 
blessing of God, whose decrees rule the 
destiny of Empires and families. Your Holi- 
ness is aware of the affectionate sentiments 
I have long borne towards you, and can 
thence judge of the pleasure that this occur- 

77 



78 napoleon's addresses. 

rence will afford me of testifying them anew. 
We pray God that He may preserve you, 
most Holy Father, for many years, to rule 
and govern our mother, the Holy Church. 
" Your dutiful son, 

" Napoleon." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 79 



Address to the Troops 011 Presenting the Colors^ 
Dec. J, 1804. 

" Soldiers : Behold your colors ! These 
eagles will always be your rallying point ! 
They will always be where your Emperor 
may think them necessary for the defence of 
his throne and of his people. Swear to sacri- 
fice your lives to defend them, and by your 
courage to keep them constantly in the path 
of victory. Swear ! " 



8o napoleon's addresses. 



Letter to the King of Englaiid, Jan. 2, 180^. 

" Sir., my b?'other : — Called to the throne by 
Providence, by the suffrages of the Senate, of 
the people, and of the army, my first desire 
is peace. France and England, abusing their 
prosperity, may contend for ages. But do 
their respective governments fulfil their 
most sacred duties in causing so much blood 
to be vainly shed without the hope of advan- 
tage or the hope of cessation ? I do not con- 
ceive that it can be deemed dishonorable in 
me to make the first advances. I believe it 
has been sufiiciently proved to the world that 
I dread none of the chances of war, which 
indeed offer nothing that I can fear. Though 
peace is the wish of my heart, yet war has 
never been adverse to my glory. I conjure 
your Majesty, then, not to refuse the happiness 
of giving peace to the world. Delay not that 
grateful satisfaction, that it may be a legacy 
for your children ; for never have arisen 
more favorable circumstances, nor a more 
propitious moment for calming every passion 
and displaying the best feelings of humanity 
and reason. That moment once lost, what 
term shall we set to a struggle which all my 
efforts have been unable to terminate. In the 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 8 1 

space of ten years your Majesty has gained 
more in wealth and territory than the extent 
of Europe comprehends. Your people have 
attained the height of prosperity. What then 
has your Majesty to hope from war? The 
world is sufficiently extensive for our two 
nations ; and reason might assist us to dis- 
cover means of conciliating all, were both 
parties animated by a spirit of reconcilement. 
At all events I have discharged a sacred duty, 
and one clear to my heart. Your Majesty 
may rely upon the sincerity of the sentiments 
now expressed, and on my desire to afford 
your Majesty every proof of that sincerity." 



82 napoleon's addresses. 



Conversation ivith Decier Regardiiig the Marriage 
of Jerome Bonaparte^ May 6, i8o^. 

"Jerome is wrong to think that he will be 
able to count upon any weakness on my par% 
for, not having the rights of a father, I cannoc 
entertain for him the feeling of a father ; a 
father allows himself to be blinded, and it 
pleases him to be blinded because he identi- 
fies his son with himself. 

" But what am I to Jerome ? Sole instru- 
ment of my destiny, I owe nothing to my 
brothers. They have made an abundant 
harvest out of what I have accomplished in 
the way of glory ; but, for all that, they must 
not abandon the field and deprive me of the 
aid I have a right to expect from them. They 
will cease to be anything for me, directly they 
take a road opposed to mine. If I expect so 
much from my brothers, who have already 
rendered many services, if I have abandoned 
the one who, in mature age (Lucien), re- 
fused to follow my advice, what must not 
Jerome, who is still young, and is known only 
for his neglect of duty, expect ? If he does 
nothing for me, I shall see in this the decree 
of destiny, which has decided that I shall do 
nothing for him," 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 83 



Letter to Je7'ome Bonaparte^ May (5, i8o^. 

Alexandria, i6 Floreal, year \t^. 

" My brother, your letter of this morning 
informs me of your arrival in Alexandria. 
There are no faults that a true repentance will 
not efface in my eyes. 

" Your union with Mademoiselle Paterson is 
null, alike in the eyes of religion and of the 
law. Write Mademoiselle Paterson to return 
to America. I will grant her a pension of 
60,000 francs during her lifetime, on condition 
that she will under no circumstances bear my 
name, — she has no right to do so owing to 
the non-existence of her marriage. You must 
yourself give her to understand that you are 
powerless to change the nature of things. 
Your marriage being thus annulled by your 
own consent, I will restore to you my friend- 
ship and continue to feel for you as I have 
done since your infancy, hoping that you will 
prove yourself worthy by the efforts you 
make to acquire my gratitude and to dis- 
tinguish yourself in my armies," 



84 napoleon's addresses. 



Address to the Senate, 180^. 

" Senators : It is necessary, in the present 
state of Europe, that I should explain to you 
my sentiments. I am about to quit my capi- 
tal, to place myself at the head of my army, 
to bear prompt assistance to my allies, and to 
defend the dearest interests of my people. 
The wishes of the eternal enemies of the 
continent are accomplished. Hostilities have 
commenced in the midst of Germany ; Austria 
and Russia have united with England, and 
our generation is involved anew in the 
calamity of war. A few days ago I still 
cherished the hope that peace would not be 
disturbed. But the Austrian army has 
passed the Inn. Munich is invaded ; the 
Elector of Bavaria has been driven from his 
capital. All my hopes of peace have 
vanished." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 85 



Proclamatio7i to the Troops on the Comfnencement 

of the War of the Third Coalition, 

September, i8o^. 

" Soldiers : The war of the third coalition is 
commenced. The Austrian army has passed 
the Inn, violated treaties, attacked and driven 
our ally from his capital. You yourselves 
have been obliged to hasten, by forced 
marches, to the defence of our frontiers. 
But you have now passed the Rhine ; and we 
will not stop now till we have secured the 
independence of the Germanic body, succored 
our allies, and humbled the pride of our un- 
just assailants. We will not again make 
peace without a sufficient guarantee ! Our 
generosity shall not again wrong our policy. 
Soldiers, your Emperor is among you ! You 
are but the advanced guard of the great 
people. If it is necessary they will all rise 
at my call to confound and dissolve this new 
league, which has been created by the malice 
and gold of England. But, soldiers, we shall 
have forced marches to make, privations of 
every kind to endure. Still, whatever obsta- 
cles may be opposed to us, we will conquer 
them ; and we will never rest until we have 
planted our eagles on the territory of our 
enemies 1" 



86 napoleon's addresses. 



Address to the Austrians, after the Fall of Uhn, 
October, iSo^. 

" Gentlemen : War has its chances. Often 
victorious, you must expect sometimes to be 
vanquished. Your master wages against me 
an unjust war. I say it candidly, I know not 
for what I am fighting, I know not what he 
requires of me. He has wished to remind me 
that I was once a soldier. I trust he will find 
that I have not forgotten my original avoca- 
tion. I want nothing on the continent, I 
desire ships, colonies, and commerce. Their 
acquisition would be as advantageous to you 
as to me." 



NAPOLEON, EiMPEROR OF FRANCE. 87 



Address to the Troops after the War of the 
Thmi Coalition, October, i8o^. 

" Soldiers of the Grand Army : In a fort- 
night we have finished the entire campaign. 
What we proposed to do has been done. We 
have driven the Austrian troops from Bavaria, 
and restored our ally to the sovereignty of his 
dominions. 

" That army, which, with equal presumption 
and imprudence, marched upon our frontiers, 
is annihilated. 

" But what does this signify to England ? 
She has gained her object. We are no longer 
at Boulogne, and her subsidy will be neither 
more nor less. 

" Of a hundred thousand men who composed 
that army, sixty thousand are prisoners. They 
will replace our conscripts in the labors of 
agriculture. 

" Two hundred pieces of cannon, the whole 
park of artillery, ninety flags, and all their gen- 
erals are in our power. Fifteen thousand men 
only have escaped. 

" Soldiers : I announced to you the result of 
a great battle ; but, thanks to the ill-devised 
schemes of the enemy, I was enabled to secure 
the wished -for result without incurring any 



88 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

danger, and, what is unexampled in tlie history 
of nations, that result has been gained at the 
sacrifice of scarcely fifteen hundred men killed 
and wounded. 

" Soldiers : this success is due to your un- 
limited confidence in your Emperor, to your 
patience in enduring fatigues and privations of 
every kind, and to your singular courage and 
intrepidity. 

" But we will not stop here. You are im- 
patient to commence another campaign. 

" The Russian army, which English gold has 
brought from the extremities of the universe, 
shall experience the same fate as that which 
we have just defeated. 

" In the conflict in which we are about to 
engage, the honor of the French infantry is 
especially concerned. We shall now see 
another decision of the question which has 
already been determined in Switzerland and 
Holland ; namely, whether the French infan- 
try is the first or the second in Europe. 

" Among the Russians there are no generals 
in contending against whom I can acquire 
any glory. All I wish is to obtain the vic- 
tory with the least possible bloodshed. My 
soldiers are my children." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 89 



ProcIamatio7i to the Soldiers hefo7'e the Battle of 
A7iste?'litz, Dee. i, iSo^. 

" Soldiers : The Russian army has presented 
itself before you to revenge the disasters of 
the Austrians at Ulm. They are the same 
men that you conquered at Hollabrunn, and 
on whose flying trails you have followed. 
The positions which we occupy are formid- 
able. While they are marching to turn my 
right, they must present their flank to your 
blows. 

" Soldiers : I will myself direct all your bat- 
talions. I will keep myself at a distance from 
the fire, if, with your accustomed valor, you 
carry disorder and confusion into the enemies' 
ranks. But should victory appear for a 
moment uncertain, you will see your Emperor 
expose himself to the first strokes. Victory 
must not be doubtful on this occasion." 



go NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Proclamation after the Battle of Austerlitz, 
Dec. J, 1805. 

" Soldiers : I am satisfied with you. In the 
Battle of Austerlitz you have justified all that 
I expected from your intrepidity. You have 
decorated your eagles with immortal glory. 
An army of one hundred thousand men, com- 
manded by the Emperors of Russia and Aus- 
tria, has been, in less than four hours, either 
cut in pieces or dispersed. Thus in two 
months the third coalition has been van- 
quished and dissolved. Peace can not now 
be far distant. But I will make only such a 
peace as gives us guarantee for the future, 
and secures rewards to our allies. When 
everything necessary to secure the happiness 
and prosperity of our country is obtained, I 
will lead you back to France. My people will 
behold you again with joy. It will be enough 
for one of you to say, ' I was at the battle of 
Austerlitz ;' for all your fellow citizens to ex- 
claim, ' There is a brave man.' " 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 9 1 



Address to the Soldiers on the Signing of Peace 
with Aiisti'ia, Dec. 26, 180^. 

" Peace has just been signed by the Emperor 
of Austria. You have in the last autumn 
made two campaigns. You have seen your 
Emperor share your dangers and your fatigues. 
I wish also that you should see him sur- 
rounded by the grandeur and splendor which 
belong to the sovereign of the first people in. 
the world. You shall all be there. We will 
celebrate the names of those who have died in 
these two campaigns in the field of honor. 
The world shall ever see us ready to follow 
their example. We will even do more than 
we have yet done, if necessary to vindicate 
our national honor, or to resist the efforts of 
those who are the eternal enemies of peace 
upon the continent. During the three months 
which are necessary to effect your return to 
France, prove the example for all armies. 
You have now to give testimonies, not of 
courage and intrepidity, but of strict discipline. 
Conduct yourselves like children in the bosom 
of their family." 



92 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Proclamation to the Soldiers^ FeTyriiary^ 1806. 

" Soldiers : For the last ten years I have 
done everything in my power to save the 
King of Naples. He has done everything to 
destroy himself. After the battles of Dego, 
Mondovi, and Lodi he could oppose to me 
but a feeble resistance. I relied upon the 
word of this Prince, and was gracious toward 
him. When the second coalition was dis- 
solved at Marengo, the King of Naples, who 
had been the first to commence this unjust 
war, abandoned by his allies, remained single- 
handed and defenceless. He implored me. 
I pardoned him a second time. It is but a 
few months since you were at the gates of 
Naples. I had sufficiently poAverful reasons 
for suspecting the treason in contemplation. 
I was still generous, — I acknowledged the 
neutrality of Naples. I ordered you to evac- 
uate the Kingdom. For the third time the 
House of Naples was reestablished and saved. 
Shall we forgive a fourth time ? Shall we 
rely a fourth time on a court without faith, 
honor, or reason ? No, no ! The dynasty of 
Naples has ceased to I'ci^^n. Its existence is 
incompatible with tlie honor of Europe, and 
the repose of my crown." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 93 

Address to the Senate on Annexatio7i of the 
Cisalpine Republic^ 1806. 

" Powerful and great is the French Empire. 
Greater still is our moderation. We have in 
a manner conquered Holland, Switzerland, 
Italy, Germany. But, in the midst of such 
unparalleled success, we have listened only to 
the counsels of moderation. Of so many con- 
quered provinces, we have retained only the 
one which was necessary to maintain France 
in the rank among the nations which she has 
always enjoyed. The partition of Poland, 
the provinces torn from Turkey, the conquest 
of India, and of almost all the European col- 
onies, have turned the balance against us. 
To form a counterpoise to such acquisitions, 
we must retain something. But we must 
keep only what is useful and necessary. 
Great would have been the addition to the 
wealth and the resources of our territory, if 
we had united to them the Italian Republic. 
But we gave it independence at Lyons. And 
we now proceed a step further, and recognize 
its ultimate separation • from the crown of 
France, deferring only the execution of that 
project till it can be done without danger to 
Italian independence." 



94 



NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



To the Legislative Body before the Battle of 
fena^ October^ 1806. 

" Princes, magistrates, soldiers, citizens, we 
have all but one object in our several depart- 
ments, — the interests of our country. Weak- 
ness in the executive is the greatest of all 
misfortunes to the people. Soldier, or First 
Consul, I have but one thought ; Emperor, I 
have no other object, — the prosperity of 
France. I do not wish to increase its terri- 
tory, but I am resolved to maintain its integ- 
rity. I have no desire to augment the 
influence which we possess in Europe, but 
I will not permit that we enjoy to decline. 
No State shall be incorporated with our 
empire ; but I will not sacrifice my rights, 
or the ties which unite us to other States." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 95 



Address to the Captive Officers after the Battle 
of/e/ia, Oct. 75, 1806. 

" I know not why I am at war with your 
sovereign. He is a wise, pacific prince, 
deserving of respect. I wisli to see your 
country rescued from its humiliating depend- 
ence upon Prussia. Why should the Saxons 
and the French, with no motive for hostility, 
fight against each other, I am ready, for my 
part, to give a pledge of my amicable dis- 
position by setting you all at liberty, and by 
sparing Saxony. All I require of you is your 
promise no more to bear arms against France." 



96 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Soldiers before Entering 
Warsaw, Jan. z, 1801. 

" Soldiers : It is a year this very hour since 
you were on the field of Austerlitz, where the 
Russian battalions fled in disorder, or surren- 
dered up their arms to their conquerors. 
Next day proposals of peace were talked of, 
but they were deceptive. No sooner had 
the Russians escaped by, perhaps, blamable 
generosity, from the disasters of the third 
coalition than they contrived a fourth. But 
the ally on whose tactics they founded their 
principal hope was no more. His capitals, 
his fortresses, his magazines, his arsenals, two 
hundred and eighty flags, and two hundred 
field-pieces have fallen into our power. The 
Oder, the Wartha, the deserts of Poland, and 
the inclemency of the season, have not for a 
moment retarded your progress. You have 
braved all ; surmounted all : every obstacle 
has fled at your approach. The Russians 
have in vain endeavored to defend the cap- 
ital of ancient and illustrious Poland. The 
French eagle hovers over the Vistula. The 
brave and unfortunate Poles, on beholding 
you, fancied they saw the legions of Sobiesky 
returning from their memorable expedition. 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 97 

" Soldiers : We will not lay clown our arms 
until a general peace has secured the power 
of our allies, and restored to us our colonies 
and our freedom of trade. We have gained on 
the Elbe and Oder, Pondicherry, our Indian 
establishments, the Cape of Good Hope, and 
the Spanish colonies. Why should the Rus- 
sians have the right of opposing destiny and 
thwarting our just designs ? They and we 
are still the soldiers who fought at Austerlitz." 



98 napoleon's addresses. 



To the King of Prussia^ Entreating Peace after 
the Battle of Eylau^ Febj'uary^ i8oy. 

" I desire to put a period to the misfortunes 
of your family, and to organize, as speedily as 
possible, the Prussian monarchy. Its inter- 
mediate power is necessary for the tranquillity 
of Europe. I desire peace with Russia; and, 
provided the Cabinet of St Petersburg has no 
designs upon the Turkish Empire, I see no 
difficulty in obtaining it. Peace with England 
is not less essential to all nations. I shall 
have no hesitation in sending a minister to 
Memil to take part in a congress of France, 
Sweden, England, Russia, Prussia, and Turkey, 
But, as such a congress may last many years, 
which would not suit the present condition of 
Prussia, your Majesty therefore will, I am 
persuaded, be of opinion that I have taken 
the simplest method, and one which is most 
likely to secure the prosperity of your sub- 
jects. At all events, I entreat your Majesty 
to believe in my sincere desire to reestablish 
amicable relations with so friendly a power as 
Prussia, and that I wish to do the same with 
Russia and England." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 99 



Address to the Army on its Return to Winter 
Quarters on the Vistula, iSoy. 

" Soldiers : We were beginning to taste the 
sweets of repose in our winter quarters when 
the enemy attacked the first corps on the 
lower A'^istula. We flew to meet him. We 
pursued him, sword in hand, eighty leagues. 
He was driven for shelter beneath the cannons 
of his fortresses, and beyond the Pregel. We 
have captured sixty pieces of cannon, sixteen 
standards, and killed, wounded, or taken more 
than forty thousand Russians. The brave, 
who have fallen on our side, have fallen 
nobly — like soldiers. Their families shall 
receive our protection. Having thus defeated 
the whole projects of the enemy, we will re- 
turn to the Vistula and reenter our winter 
quarters. Whosoever ventures to disturb our 
repose will repent of it. Beyond the Vistula, 
as beyond the Danube, we shall always be the 
Soldiers of the Grand Army." 



lOO NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Proclamatmi to the Soldier's after the Battle of 
Friedland^ fune 24, i8oy. 

" Soldiers : On the 5th of June we were 
attacked in our cantonments by the Russian 
army. The enemy had mistaken the cause of 
our inactivity. He perceived too late that our 
repose was that of a lion. He repents of 
having disturbed it. In a campaign of ten 
days we have taken one hundred and twenty 
pieces of cannon, seven colors, and have 
killed, wounded, or taken sixty thousand 
Russians. We have taken from the enemy's 
army all its magazines, its hospitals, its am- 
bulances, the fortress of Konisberg, the three 
hundred vessels which were in that port laded 
with all kinds of military stores, and one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand muskets, which Eng- 
land was sending to arm our enemies. From 
the banks of the Vistula we have come with 
the speed of the eagle to those of Niemen. 
At Austerlitz you celebrated the anniversary 
of the coronation. At Friedland you have 
worthily celebrated the Battle of Marengo, 
where we put an end to the war of the second 
coalition. 

" Frenchmen : You have been worthy of 
yourselves and of me. You will return to 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. lOI 

France covered with laurels, having obtained 
a glorious peace, which carries with it a 
guarantee of its duration. It is time for our 
country to live in repose, sheltered from the 
malignant influences of England. My bounties 
shall prove to you my gratitude, and the full 
extent of the love which I feel for you.'' 



I02 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Letter to Champagny, Nov. zy, iSoy. 

" Since America suffers her vessels to be 
searcliecl, she adopts the principle that the 
flag does not cover the goods. 

" Since she recognizes the absurd block- 
ades laid by England, consents to having her 
vessels incessantly stopped, sent to England, 
and so turned aside from their course, why 
should not the Americans suffer the blockade 
laid by France ? Certainly France is no 
more blockaded by England than England by 
France. Why should not Americans also 
suffer their vessels to be searched by French 
ships ? Certainly France recognizes that 
these measures are unjust, illegal, and sub- 
versive of national sovereignty ; but it is the 
duty of nations to resort to force, and to de- 
clare themselves against things which dis- 
honor them and disgrace their independence." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 1 03 



Proclamation to the Spaniards on the Abdica- 
tion of Charles IV. ^ June 2, 1808. 

" Spaniards : After a long agony your nation 
was on the point of perishing. I saw your 
miseries and hastened to apply a remedy. 
Your grandeur, your power, form an integral 
part of my own. Your princes have ceded to 
me the rights to the crown of Spain. I have 
no wish to reign over your provinces, but I am 
desirous of acquiring eternal titles to the love 
and gratitude of your posterity. Your mon- 
archy is old. My mission is to pour into its 
veins the blood of youth. I will ameliorate 
all your institutions and make you enjoy, if 
you second my efforts, the blessings of reform, 
without its collisions, its disorders, its convul- 
sions. I have convoked a general assembly 
of the deputations of your provinces and 
cities. I am desirous of ascertaining your 
wants by personal intercourse. I will then 
lay aside all the titles I have acquired, and 
place your glorious crown on the head of my 
second self, after having secured for you a 
constitution which may establish the sacred 
and salutary authority of the sovereign, with 
the liberties and privileges of the people. 
Spaniards : Reflect on what your fathers were ; 



I04 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 

on what you are now. The fault does not lie 
in you ; but in the constitution by which you 
have been governed. Conceive the most ar- 
dent hopes and confidence in the results of 
your present situation ; for I wish that your 
latest posterity should preserve the recollec- 
tion of me, and say : ' He was the regenerator of 
our country.^ " 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 105 



Address to the Legislative Body, before Leaving 
Paris for the Spanish Ca??ipaign, 1808. 

" I have travelled this year more than three 
thousand miles in the interior of my empire. 
The spectacle of this great French family — 
recently distracted by intestine divisions, now 
united and happy — has profoundly moved 
me. I have learned that I cannot be happy 
myself unless I first see that France is happy. 
A part of my army is marching to meet the 
troops which England has landed in Spain. 
It is an especial blessing of that Providence 
which has constantly protected our army, that 
passion has so blinded the English counsels 
as to induce them to renounce the possession 
of the seas, and to exhibit their army on the 
continent. I depart in a few days to place 
myself at the head of my troops, and, with the 
aid of God, to crown in Madrid the King of 
Spain, and to place our eagles on the fort of 
Lisbon. The Emperor of Russia and I have 
met at Erfurt. Our most earnest endeavor 
has been for peace. We have resolved to 
make many sacrifices ; to confer, if possible, 
the blessings of maritime commerce upon the 
hundred millions of men whom we represent. 
We are of one mind, and we are indissolubly 
united for peace as for war. " 



io6 napoleon's addresses. 



Letter to the Emperoi' of Austria^ October^ 1808. 

^"^ Sire, my Brother: — I thank your Royal 
and Imperial Majesty for the letter you have 
been so good as to write me, and which 
Baron Vincent delivered. I never doubted 
your Majesty, but I nevertheless feared for a 
moment that hostilities would be renewed 
between us. There is, at Vienna, a faction 
which affects alarm in order to drive your 
Cabinet to violent measures, which would 
entail misfortunes greater than those which 
are passed. I had it in my power to dismem- 
ber your Majesty's monarchy, or at least to 
diminish its power. I did not do so. It 
exists as it is by my consent. This is a plain 
proof that our accounts are settled ; that I have 
no desire to injure you. I am always ready 
to guarantee the integrity of your monarchy. 
I will never do anything adverse to the im- 
portant interests of States. But your Majesty 
ought not to bring again under discus- 
sion what has been settled by a fifteen years' 
war. You ought to avoid every proclamation 
or act calculated to excite dissension. The 
last levy in mass might have provoked war if 
I had apprehended that the levy and prepara- 
tions were made in conjunction with Russia. 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE, 107 

"I have just disbanded the camp of the 
Confederation. I have sent a hundred thou- 
sand men to Boulogne to renew my projects 
against England. I had reason to believe 
when I had the happiness of seeing your 
Majesty, and had concluded the treaty of 
Presburg, that our disputes were terminated 
forever, and that I might undertake the mari- 
time war without interruption. I beseech 
your Majesty to distrust those, who, by speak- 
ing of the dangers of the monarchy, disturb 
your happiness and that of your family and 
people. Those persons alone are dangerous ; 
they create the dangers they pretend to fear. 
By a straightforward, plain, and ingenious line 
of conduct, your Majesty will render your 
people happy, will secure to yourself that 
tranquillity of which you must stand in need 
after so many troubles, and will be sure of 
finding me determined to do nothing hostile 
to your important interests. Let your con- 
duct bespeak confidence, and you will inspire 
it. The best policy at the present time is 
simplicity and truth. Confide your troubles 
to me when you have any, and I will instantly 
banish them. Allow me to make one obser- 
vation more — listen to your own judgment — 
your own feelings — they are much more cor- 
rect than those of your advisers. I beseech 



io8 napoleon's addresses. 

your Majesty to read my letter in the spirit in 
which it is written, and to see nothing in it 
inconsistent with the welfare and tranquillity 
of Europe and your Majesty." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. 1 09 



Proclamation to the Soldiers, during the March 
for Spain, 1808. 

" Soldiers : After triumphing on the banks 
of the Vistula and the Danube, with rapid 
steps you have passed through Germany, 
This day, without a moment of repose, I com- 
mand you to traverse France. Soldiers : I 
have need of you. The hideous presence of 
the leopard contaminates the peninsula of 
Spain and Portugal. In terror he must fly 
before you. Let us bear our triumphal eagles 
to the pillars of Hercules. There, also, we 
have injuries to avenge. Soldiers : You have 
passed the renown of our modern armies, but 
you have not yet equalled the glories of those 
Romans, who, in one and the same campaign, 
were victorious upon the Rhine and the 
Euphrates, in lUyria and upon the Tagus. 
A long peace, a lasting prosperity, shall be 
the reward of your labors. But a real French- 
man ought not, could not, rest until the seas 
are open to all. Soldiers : All that you have 
done, all that you will do for the happiness of 
the French people, and for my glory, shall be 
eternal in my heart." 



no NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Summons to M. de Morla to Su?'?'e7ider Madrid, 
Dec. J, 1808. 

" In vain you employ the name of the peo- 
ple. If you cannot find means to pacify them, 
it is because you yourselves excited them 
and misled them by falsehood. Assemble the 
clergy, the heads of the convents, the alcades, 
and if between this and six in the morning the 
city has not surrendered, it shall cease to 
exist. I neither will, nor ought to withdraw 
my troops. You have slaughtered the unfortu- 
nate French who have fallen into your hands. 
Only two days ago you suffered two servants 
of the Russian ambassador to be dragged 
away and put to death in the streets because 
they were Frenchmen. The incapacity and 
weakness of a general had put into your 
hands troops which had capitulated on the 
field of battle of Baylen, and the capitulation 
was violated. You, M. de Morla, what sort of 
a letter did you write to that general .-* Well 
did it become you to talk of pillage — ^you, 
who having entered Rousillon in 1795, carried 
off all the women, and divided them as booty 
among your soldiers. What right had you, 
moreover, to hold such language. The capit- 
ulation of Baylen forbade it. Look what was 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. Ill 

the conduct of the EngHsh, who are far from 
priding themselves on being strict observers 
of the law of nations. They complained of 
the Convention of Cintra, but they fulfilled it. 
To violate military treaties is to renounce all 
civilization — to put ourselves on a level with 
the Bedouins of the desert. How then dare 
you demand a capitulation — you who violated 
that of Baylen ? See how injustice and bad 
faith ever recoil upon those who are guilty of 
them. I had a fleet at Cadiz. It had come 
there as to a harbor of an ally. You directed 
against it the mortars of the city which you 
commanded. I had a Spanish army in my 
ranks. I preferred to see it escape in English 
ships, and to fling itself upon the rocks of 
Espinosa, than to disarm it. I preferred hav- 
ing nine thousand more enemies to fight, to 
violating good faith and honor. Return to 
Madrid. I give you till six o'clock to-morrow 
evening. You have nothing to say to me 
about the people, but to tell me that they have 
submitted. If not, you and your troops shall 
be put to the sword." 



112 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Proclamation to the Spanish People^ 
December^ 1808. 

" I have declared, in a proclamation of the 
2d of June, that I wished to be the regen- 
erator of Spain, To the rights which the 
princes of the ancient dynasty have ceded to 
me, you have wished that I should add the 
rights of conquest. That, however, shall 
not change my inclination to serve you. I 
wish to encourage everything that is noble in 
your own exertions. All that is opposed to 
your prosperity and your grandeur I wish to 
destroy. The shackles which have enslaved 
the people I have broken. I have given you 
a liberal constitution, and, in the place of an 
absolute monarchy, a monarchy mild and 
limited. It depends upon yourselves whether 
that constitution shall still be your law." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. II3 



Letter to the American Minister^ Arm- 
strong, i8og. 

" The seas belong to all nations. Any 
vessel, sailing under whatsoever flag, recog- 
nized and avowed by her, should be as much 
at home in the midst of the seas as if she were 
in her own ports. The flag floating from the 
mast of a merchant vessel should be respected 
as much as if it floated from the top of a 
village spire. 

" In case of war between two maritime 
powers, neutrals should follow the legislation 
of neither one. Every vessel should be pro- 
tected by its flag. Every power which vio- 
lates a flag declares war against the power to 
which it belongs. To insult a merchant vessel 
which carries the flag of a power, is the same 
thing as invading a town or colony belonging 
to that power. His Majesty declares that he 
considers the fleets of nations as floating 
colonies belonging to those nations. In con- 
sequence of this principle, the sovereignty and 
independence of a nation is a property of its 
neighbors. If a French citizen was insulted 
in an American port or colony, the Govern- 
ment of the United States would not deny 
that it was responsible for it. In the same 



114 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 

way the Government of the United States 
must be responsible for the violation of French 
property on board of a ship or floating Ameri- 
can colony ; otherwise, this Government, not 
being able to guarantee the integrity of its 
rights and the independence of its flag, his 
Majesty considers the American vessels which 
have been violated by visits, by taxes, and 
other arbitrary acts, as no longer belonging to 
the United States, and as denationalized. 

" But whenever the Government of the 
United States shall order its vessels armed to 
repulse the unjust aggressions of England, to 
sustain its rights, against the refusal of this 
power to recognize the great principle that 
the flag covers the ship, and against its unjust 
pretension of searching neutral vessels, his 
Majesty is willing to recognize them and treat 
them as neutrals." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. II5 



Proclamation to the Soldiers before the Battle of 
Eck77iuhl^ April, i8og. 

" Soldiers : The territory of the confedera- 
tion of the Rhine has been violated. The 
Austrian general supposes that we are to fly 
at the sight of his eagles, and abandon our 
allies to his mercy. I arrive with the rapidity 
of lightning in the midst of you. Soldiers : I 
was surrounded by your bayonets, when the 
Emperor of Austria arrived at my bivouac in 
Moravia. You heard him employ my clemency, 
and swear an eternal friendship. Conquerors 
in three wars, Austria has owed everything to 
our generosity. Three times she has per- 
jured herself ! Our former successes are our 
guarantee for our future triumphs. Let us 
march, then, and at our aspect, let the enemy 
recognize his conquerors," 



ii6 napoleon's addresses. 



Proclamation to the Troops at RatisboUy 
Ap7'il, i8og. 

" Soldiers : You have justified my anticipa- 
tions. You have suppUed by bravery the 
want of numbers, and have shown the differ- 
ence which exists between the soldiers of 
Csesar and the armed rabble of Xerxes. 
Within the space of a few days we have 
triumphed in the battles of Thaun, Abersberg, 
and Eckmuhl, and in the combats of Peissing, 
Landshut, and Ratisbon. One hundred pieces 
of cannon, forty standards, fifty thousand 
prisoners, three bridge equipages, three thou- 
sand baggage-wagons with their horses, and all 
the money chests of the regiments, are the 
fruits of the rapidity of your marches, and of 
your courage. The enemy, seduced by a per- 
jured Cabinet, appeared to have lost all 
recollection of you. His awakening has been 
speedy ; you have appeared more terrible than 
ever. Lately, he crossed the Inn, and invaded 
the territory of our allies. Lately, he talked 
of nothing less than carrying the war into the 
bosom of our country. Now, defeated, dis- 
persed, he flies, in consternation. Already my 
advance-guard has passed the Inn. In one 
month we will be in Vienna." 



NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF FRANCE. II7 



Address to the Troops on Entering Vienna^ 
May, i8og. 

" In a month after the enemy passed the 
Inn, on the same day, at the same hour, we 
entered Vienna. Their miUtia, their levies en 
viasse, their ramparts, created by the impotent 
rage of the princes of the House of Lorraine, 
have fallen at the first sight of you. The 
princes of that house have abandoned their 
capital, not like the soldiers of honor, who 
yield to circumstance and the reverses of war, 
but as perjurers haunted by the sense of their 
crime. In flying from Vienna, their adieus to 
its inhabitants have been murder and confla- 
gration. Like Medea, they have with their 
own hands massacred their own offspring. 
Soldiers : The people of Vienna, according to 
the expression of a deputation of the suburbs, 
abandoned, widoived, shall be the object of 
your regards. I take its good citizens under 
my special protection. As to the wicked and 
turbulent, they shall meet with exemplary jus- 
tice. Soldiers : Be kind to the poor peasants ; 
to those worthy people who have so many 
claims upon your esteem. Let us not mani- 
fest any pride at our success. Let us see in 
it but a proof of that divine justice which pun- 
ishes the ungrateful and the perjured." 



ii8 napoleon's addresses. 



Prodaination to the Hungarians, i8og. 

" Hungarians : The moment is come to 
revive your independence. I offer you peace, 
the integrity of. your territory, the inviolabiUty 
of your constitutions, — whether of such as 
are in actual existence, or of those which the 
spirit of the time may require. I ask nothing 
of you. I desire only to see your nation free 
and independent. Your union with Austria 
has made your misfortunes. Your blood has 
flowed for her in distant regions. Your dear- 
est interests have always been sacrificed to 
those of the Austrian hereditary estates. You 
form the finest part of the Empire of Austria, 
yet you are treated as a province. You have 
national manners, a national language ; you 
boast an ancient and illustrious origin. Re- 
sume, then, your existence as a nation. Have 
a king of your own choice, who will reside 
among you, and reign for you alone." 



PART V. 

THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 

Address to the Troops on the Beg'mn'uig of the 
Ricssiaii Campaig7i, May, 1812. 

" Soldiers : The second war of Poland has 
commenced. The first war terminated at 
Friedland and Tilsit. At Tilsit, Russia swore "^ 
eternal alliance with France, and war with 
England. She has openly violated her oath, 
and refuses to offer any explanation of her 
strange conduct till the French Eagle shall 
have passed the Rhine, and, consequently, 
shall have left her allies at her discretion. 
Russia is impelled onward by fatality. Her 
destiny, is about to be accomplished. Does 
she believe that we have degenerated ? that 
we are no longer the soldiers of Austerlitz ? 
She has placed us between dishonor and 
war. The choice cannot for an instant be 
doubtful. Let us march forward, then, and 
crossing the Niemen, carry the war into her 
territories. The second war of Poland will be 
to the French army as glorious as the first. 



I20 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 

But our next peace must carry with it its own 
guarantee, and put an end to that arrogant 
influence which, for the last fifty years, Russia 
has exercised over the affairs of Europe." 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 121 



Address to the Troops before the Battle of 
Borodino^ Sept. 7, 181 2. 

" Soldiers : This is the battle you have so 
much desired. The victory depends upon 
you ! It is now necessary to us. It will give 
us abundance of good winter quarters, and a 
prompt return to our country. Behave as at 
Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Witepsk, at Smo- 
lensk, and let the latest posterity recount with 
pride your conduct on this day ; let them say 
of you, ' He was at the battle under the walls 
of Moscow.' " 



122 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Letter to Alexander I., Emperor of Russia. 

Moscow, Sept. 20, 181 2. 

" Monsieur, my brother : — Having been in- 
formed that the brother of your Imperial 
Majesty's Minister at Cassel was in Moscow, 
I sent for him, and we have had a conversa- 
tion of some length. I have advised his mak- 
ing my sentiments known to your Majesty. 

" The superb and beautiful city of Moscow 
no longer exists. Rostoptchine gave orders 
to burn it. Four hundred incendiaries were 
arrested on the spot, all of whom declared 
that they had received their orders from the 
governor and the director of the police ; they 
were shot. 

" The fire at last appears to have ceased. 
Three-quarters of the buildings have been 
burned, the other quarter remains. 

" Such conduct is atrocious and useless. 
Was its object to make way with some treas- 
ure ? But the treasure was in caves which 
could not be reached by the fire. 

" Moreover, why destroy one of the most 
beautiful cities in the world, the work of cen- 
turies, for so paltry an end ? It is the same 
line of conduct that has been followed from 
Smolensk, and has left 600,000 families home- 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 1 23 

less. The fire-engines in Moscow were either 
broken or made way with, and a portion of 
the arms in the arsenal given to malefactors, 
which obliged us to lire a few shots at the 
Kremlin in order to disperse them. 

" Humanity, the interests of your Majesty 
and of this great city, required that the city 
should be confided to me as a trust, since it 
was exposed by the Russian army. It should 
not have been left without administration, 
magistrates, and civil guards. Such a plan 
was adopted at Vienna, Madrid, and twice at 
Berlin. We ourselves followed out this plan 
-at the time of the entrance of Sonvarof. 

" Incendiaries authorize pillage, to which 
the soldiers surrender themselves in order to 
dispute the debris with the flames. 

" If I imagined for an instant that such a 
state of affairs was authorized by 3^our Maj- 
esty, I should not write this letter; but I hold 
it as impossible that, with your Majesty's 
principles, and heart, with the justice of your 
Majesty's ideas, you could authorize excesses 
that are unworthy of a great sovereign and 
of a great nation. While the engines were 
carried from Moscow, one hundred and 
fifty pieces of field cannon, 60,000 new mus- 
kets, 1,600,000 infantry cartridges, 400,000 
weights of powder, 300,000 weights of salt- 



124 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

petre, as much sulphur, etc., were left be- 
hind. 

^' I wage war against your Majesty without 
animosity ; a note from you before or after the 
last battle would have stopped my march, 
and I should even have liked to have sacri- 
ficed the advantage of entering Moscow. If 
your Majesty retains some remains of your 
former sentiments, you will take this letter in 
good part. At all events, you will thank me 
for giving you an account of what is passing 
at Moscow." 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 1 25 



Discou7'se at the Openiiig of the Legislative Body. 

Palais des Tuileries, Feb. 14, 18 13. 

" I entered Russia. The French armies 
were constantly victorious on the fields of 
Ostrono, Polotsk, Mohilef, Smolensk, Mos- 
kova, Malo-Yaroslavetz. Nowhere could the 
Russian armies stand before our eagles. Mos- 
cow fell into our power. 

'' When the Russian borders were forced 
and the powerlessness of their arms was rec- 
ognized, a swarm of Tartars turned their 
parricidal hands against the most beautiful 
provinces of the empire they had been called 
upon to defend. Inside a few weeks, in spite 
of the grief and despair of the unfortunate 
Muscovites, they set fire to over four thousand 
of their most prosperous villages, and more 
than fifty of their most beautiful cities ; thus 
gratifying their ancient hatred, and, on the 
pretext of retarding our progress, surround- 
ing us by a desert waste. 

" But we triumphed over all these obstacles ; 
even the conflagration of Moscow, where, in 
four days, they destroyed the fruits of the toil 
and thrift of forty generations, in no way 
changed the prosperous condition of my affairs. 
But the rigor of an extreme and premature 



126 napoleon's addresses. 

winter laid the weight of a terrible calamity 
upon my army. In a few nights every thing 
changed. I met with great losses. My solI 
would have been crushed beneath their weight 
had I been accessible to any other feelings 
than the interest, the glory, and the future of 
my people. 

" At sight of the evils that beset us, Eng- 
land's joy was great. Her hopes knew no 
bounds. She offered our finest provinces as a 
reward for treachery. As a condition of peace 
she proposed the extinction of this beautiful 
empire ; which was in other terms a proclama- 
tion of perpetual war. 

" The energy shown by my people under 
such grave circumstances, their devotion to 
the integrity of the empire, the love they have 
shown me, have dissipated all these chimeras 
and have brought our enemies to a more just 
appreciation of affairs. 

" The misfortunes occasioned by the severity 
of the frosts demonstrated to their full extent 
the grandeur and solidity of this empire, 
founded upon the exertions and love of fifty 
million citizens, and upon the territorial re- 
sources of the most beautiful countries in the 
world," 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 127 



Address to the Legislative Body, 
Decembe?', i8ij. 

" I have suppressed your address, it was 
incendiary. I called you round me to do 
good — you have done ill. Eleven-twelfths of 
you are well intentioned, the others, and above 
all, M. Laine, are factious intriguers, devoted 
to England, to all my enemies, and correspond- 
ing, through the channel of the advocate 
Desege, with the Prince Regent, Return to 
your departments and feel that my eye will 
follow you ; you have endeavored to humble 
me, you may kill me, but you shall not dis- 
honor me. You make remonstrances ; is this 
a time, when the stranger invades our prov- 
inces, and two hundred thousand Cossacks are 
ready to overflow our country ? There may 
have been petty abuses ; I never connived at 
them. You, M. Renouard, you said that 
Prince Massena robbed a man at Marseilles 
of his house. You lie ! The general took 
possession of a vacant house, and my minister 
shall indemnify the proprietor. Is it thus 
that you dare affront a marshal of France 
who has bled for his country, and grown gray 
in victory ? Why did you not make your 
complaints in secret to me ? I would have 



^28 napoleon's addresses. 

done you justice. We should wash our dirty 
linen in private, and not drag it out before the 
world. You call yourselves representatives of 
the nation. It is not true ; you are only 
deputies of the departments ; a small portion 
of the State, inferior to the Senate, inferior 
even to the Council of State. The repre- 
sentatives of the people ! I am alone the 
representative of the people. Twice have 
twenty-four millions of French called me to 
the throne — which of you durst undertake 
such a burden ? It had already overwhelmed 
(ecrase) your Assemblies, and your Conven- 
tions, your Vergniands and your Guadets, 
your Jacobins and your Girondins. They 
are all dead ! What, who are you ? nothing — 
all authority is in the throne ; and what is the 
throne ? This wooden frame covered with 
velvet .'' No, I am the throne. You have 
added wrong to reproaches. You have talked 
of concessions - — concessions that even my 
enemies dared not ask. I suppose if they 
asked Champagne, you would have given 
them La Brie besides ; but in four months I 
will conquer peace, or I shall be dead. You 
advise ! how dare you debate on such high 
matters (de si graves interets) ! You have put 
me in the front of the battle as the cause of 
war. It is infamous {c'est une atrocite). In all 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 1 29 

your committees you have excluded the friends 
of the Government, extraordinary commission, 
committee of finance, committee of the ad- 
dress, all, all my enemies. M. Laine, I repeat 
it, is a traitor ; he is a wicked man, the others 
are mere intriguers. I do justice to the 
eleven-twelfths ; but the factious I know and 
will pursue. Is it, I ask again, is it while the 
enemy is in France that you should have 
done this ? But nature has gifted me \\ ith a 
determined courage — nothing can overcome 
me. It cost my pride much, too, — I made 
that sacrifice ; I — but I am above your miser- 
able declamations. I was in need of consola- 
tion, and you would mortify me, — but, no, 
my victories shall crush your clamors ; in 
three months we shall have peace, and you 
shall repent your folly. / am one of those who 
triumph or die. 

" Go back to your departments. If any one 
of you dare to print your address, I shall pub- 
Hsh it in the Mojiiteur with notes of my own. 
Go, France stands more in need of me than I 
do of France. I bear the eleven-twelfths of 
vou in my heart. I shall nominate the depu- 
ties of the two series which are vacant, and I 
shall reduce the legislative body to the dis- 
charge of its proper duties. The inhabitants 
of Alsace and Franche-Comte have a better 



130 napoleon's addresses. 

spirit than you ; they ask me for arms. I 
send them, and one of my aides-de-camp will 
lead them against the enemy." 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 131 



Address to the Guard, April 2, 18 14. 

" Soldiers : The enemy has stolen three 
marches on us, and has made himself master 
of Paris. We must drive him thence. French- 
men, unworthy of the name, emigrants whom 
we have pardoned, have mounted the white 
cockade and joined the enemy. The wretches 
shall receive the reward due to this new 
crime. Let us swear to conquer or die, 
and to enforce respect to the tri-colored cock- 
ade, which has for twenty years accompanied 
us on the path of glory and honor." 



132 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Speech of Abdication^ April 2, 18 14.. 

" The allied powers having decided that the 
Emperor Napoleon is the only obstacle to 
the reestablishment of peace in Europe, the 
Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, 
declares that he is ready to descend from the 
throne, to leave Europe, and even to lay down 
his life for the welfare of his country, which 
is inseparable from the rights of his son, those 
of the regency of the Empress, and the main- 
tenance of the laws of the empire." 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 133 



Farewell to the Old Guards April 20, 18 14. 

" Soldiers of my old guard, I bid you fare- 
well. For twenty years I have constantly 
accompanied you on the road to honor and 
glory. In these latter times, as in the days of 
our prosperity, you have invariably been 
models of courage and fidelity. With men 
such as you our cause could not be lost ; but 
the war would have been interminable ; it 
would have been civil war, and that would have 
entailed deeper misfortunes on France. I have 
sacrificed all my interests to those of the 
country. I go, but you, my friends, wAW con- 
tinue to serve France. Her happiness was 
my only thought. It will still be the object of 
my wishes. Do not regret my fate ; if I have 
consented to survive, it is to serve your glory. 
I intend to write the history of the great 
achievements we have performed together. 
Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you 
all to my heart." Napoleon then ordered 
the eagles to be brought, and, having em- 
braced them, he added : " I embrace you all 
in the person of your general. Adieu, sol- 
diers ! Be always gallant and good." 



134 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 



Proclamation to the French People on His 
Return from Elba^ March ^^ i8i^. 

" Frenchmen : The defection of the Duke of 
CastigHone (Augereau) delivered up Lyons 
without defense to our enemies. The army, 
the command of which I had entrusted to him, 
was, by the number of its battalions, the cour- 
age and patriotism of the troops that com- 
posed it, in a condition to beat the Austrian 
troops opposed to it, and to arrive in time on 
the rear of the left flank of the army which 
threatened Paris. The victories of Champ- 
Aubert, of Montmirail, of Chateau - Thierry, 
of Van Champs, of Mormons, of Montereau, of 
Craonne, of Rheims, of Arcis-sur-Aube, and of 
St. Dizier, the rising of the brave peasants 
of Lorraine and Champagne, of Alsace, 
Franche - Comte and Burgundy, and the po- 
sition which I had taken in the rear of the 
hostile army, by cutting it off from its maga- 
zines, its parks of reserve, its convoys, and all 
the equipages, had placed it in a desperate 
situation. The French were never on the 
point of being more powerful, and the elite of 
the enemy's army was lost without resource ; 
it would have found a tomb in those vast 
plains which it had so mercilessly laid waste, 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. I35 

when the treason of the Duke of Ragusa 
delivered up the capital and disorganized the 
army. The unexpected misconduct of these 
two generals, who betrayed at once their 
country, their prince, and their benefactor, 
changed the fate of the war ; the situation of 
the enemy was such that, at the close of the 
action which took place before Paris, he was 
without ammunition, in consequence of his 
separation from his parks of reserve. In 
these new and distressing circumstances, my 
heart was torn, but my mind remained im- 
movable ; I consulted only the interests of 
the country ; I banished myself to a rock in 
the middle of the sea ; my life was yours, and 
might still be useful to you. Frenchmen : In 
my exile I heard your complaints and your 
wishes ; you accused my long slumber ; you 
reproached me with sacrificing the welfare of 
the country to my repose. I have traversed 
the seas through perils of every kind ; I return 
among you to reclaim my rights, which are 
yours." 



136 napoleon's addresses. 



Napoleon^ s Proclamation to the Army on His 
Return from Elba^ March 5, 181^. 

" Soldiers : We have not been conquered ; 
two men, sprung from our ranks, have betrayed 
our laurels, their country, their benefactor, and 
their prince. Those whom we have beheld 
for twenty-five years traversing all Europe to 
raise up enemies against us, who have spent 
their lives in fighting against us in the ranks 
of foreign armies, and in cursing our beautiful 
France, shall they pretend to command or 
enchain our eagles ? — they who have never 
been able to look them in the face. Shall 
we suffer them to inherit the fruit of our glori- 
ous toils, to take possession of our honors, of 
our fortunes ; to calumniate and revile our 
glory } If their reign were to continue all 
would be lost, even the recollection of those 
memorable days. With what fury they mis- 
represent them ! They seek to tarnish what 
the world admires ; and if there still remain 
defenders of our glory, they are to be found 
among those very enemies whom we have 
confronted in the field of battle. Soldiers : 
in my exile I have heard your voice ; I have 
come back in spite of all obstacles and all 
dangers. Your general, called to the throne 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 137 

by the choice of the people, and raised on 
your shields, is restored to you ; come and 
join him. Mount the tri-colored cockade ; 
you wore it in the days of our greatness. We 
must forget that we have been the masters of 
nations ; but we must not suffer any to inter- 
meddle in our affairs. Who would pretend to 
be master over us ? Who would have the 
power } Resume those eagles which you had 
at Ulm, at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau, at 
Wagram, at Friedland, at Tudela, at Eck- 
miihl, at Essling, at Smolensk, at the Mos- 
kowa, at Lutzen, at Wurtchen, at Montmirail. 
The veterans of the armies of the Sambre 
and Meuse, of the Rhine, of Italy, of Egypt, 
of the West, of the Grand Army, are illumi- 
nated ; their honorable scars are stained ; 
their successes would be crimes ; the brave 
would be rebels, if, as the enemies of the peo- 
ple pretend, the legitimate sovereigns were in 
the midst of foreign armies. Honors, recom- 
penses, favors, are reserved for those who 
have served with them against the country 
and against us. Soldiers : Come and range 
yourselves under the banners of your chief ; 
his existence is only made up of yours ; his 
rights are only those of the people and yours ; 
his interest, his honor, his glory, are no other 
than your interest, your honor, and your glory. 



138 napoleon's addresses. 

Victory shall march at a charging step ; the 
eagle, with the national colors, shall fly from 
steeple to steeple, till it reaches the towers of 
Notre Dame., Then you will be able to show 
your scars with honor ; then you will be able 
to boast of what you have done ; you will be 
the liberators of the country ! In your old 
age, surrounded and looked up to by your 
fellow citizens, they will listen to you with 
respect as you recount your high deeds , you 
will each of you be able to say with pride, 
' And I also made part of that grand army 
which entered twice within the walls of Vi- 
enna, within those of Rome, of Berlin, of 
Madrid, of Moscow, and which delivered Paris 
from the stain which treason and the presence 
of the enemy had imprinted on it' Honor 
to those brave soldiers, the glory of their 
country ! " 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 1 39 



Proclamation on the Annivcrsajy of the Battles 
of Marengo and Friedland^ fime 14, 181 j. 

" Soldiers : This day is the anniversary of 
Marengo and Friedland, which twice decided 
the destiny of Europe. Then, as after the 
battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, we were too 
generous. We believed in the protestations 
and oaths of princes to whom we left their 
thrones. Now, however, leagued together, 
they strike at the independence and sacred 
rights of France. They have committed un- 
just aggressions. Let us march forward and 
meet them ; are we not still the same men ? 
Soldiers : At Jena, these Prussians, now so 
arrogant, were three to one ; at Montmi- 
rail six to one. Let those who have been 
captive to the English describe the nature 
of their prison ships, and the sufferings 
they endured. The Saxons, the Belgians, the 
Hanoverians, the soldiers of the Confederation 
of the Rhine, lament that they are obliged to 
use their arms in the cause of princes who are 
the enemies of justice, and the destroyers of 
the rights of nations. They well know the 
coalition to be insatiable. After having swal- 
lowed up twelve millions of Poles, twelve 
millions of Italians, one million of Saxons, and 



140 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 

six millions of Belgians, they now wish to 
devour the States of the second order among 
the Germans. Madmen ! one moment of pros- 
perity has bewildered them. To oppress and 
humble the people of France is out of their 
power ; once entering our territory, there they 
will find their doom. Soldiers : We have forced 
marches before us, battles to fight, and dan- 
gers to encounter ; but firm in resolution, 
victory must be ours. The honor and happi- 
ness of our country are at stake ! and, in short. 
Frenchmen, the moment is arrived when we 
must conquer or die ! " 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 141 



Pi'oclamation to the Belgians^ June z/, 181^- 

" To the Belgians and the inhabitants on 
the left bank of the Rhine : The ephemeral 
success of my enemies detached you for a 
moment from my empire. In my exile, upon 
a rock in the sea, I heard your complaint ; 
the God of Battles has decided the fate of 
your beautiful provinces ; Napoleon is among 
you ; you are worthy to be Frenchmen. Rise 
in a body ; join my invincible phalanxes to 
exterminate the remainder of these barbarians, 
who are your enemies and mine ; they fly, with 
rage and despair in their hearts." 



142 NAPOLEONS ADDRESSES. 



Napoleon^ s Proclamation to the French People 07i 
His Secojid Abdication^ June 22^ 181^. 

" Frenchmen : In commencing war for the 
national independence, I reUed on the miion 
of all efforts, of all wills, and the concurrence 
of all the national authorities. I had reason 
to hope for success, and I braved all the 
declarations of the powers against me. Circum- 
stances appear to me changed. I offer myself 
a sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies of 
France. May they prove sincere in their 
declarations, and really have directed them 
only against my power. My political life is 
terminated, and I proclaim my son, under the 
title of Napoleon II., Emperor of the French. 
The present ministers will provisionally form 
the council of the Government. The interest 
which I take in my son induces me to invite 
the chambers to form, without delay, the 
regency by a law. Unite all for the public 
safety that you may continue an independent 
nation." 



THE FALL OF NAPOLEON. 



143 



Boiiaparte' s Protest^ Written on Bom-d the 
Belter op hon^ August ^, 181^. 

" I hereby solemniy protest, before God and 
man, against the injustice offered me, and the 
violation of my most sacred rights, in forcibly 
disposing of my person and my liberty. I 
came freely on board of the Bellerophon ; I am 
not a prisoner ; I am the guest of England. I 
was, indeed, instigated to come on board by 
the captain, who told me that he had been 
directed by his Government to receive me and 
my suite, and conduct me to England, if 
agreeable to my wishes. I presented myself 
in good faith, with the view of claiming the 
protection of the English laws. As soon as I 
had reached the deck of the Bellerophon^ I 
considered myself in the home and on the 
hearth of the British people. 

" If it was the intention of Government, in 
giving orders to the captain of the Bellerophon 
to receive me and my suite, merely to entrap 
me, it has forfeited its honor and sullied its 
flag. 

" If this act be consummated, it will be 
useless for the English to talk to Europe of 
their integrity, their laws, and their liberty. 
British good faith will have been lost in the 
hospitality of the Bellerophon. 



144 NAPOLEON S ADDRESSES. 

" I appeal to history, — it will say that an 
enemy, who made war for twenty years upon 
the English people, came voluntarily, in his 
misfortunes, to seek an asylum under their 
laws. What more striking proof could he 
give of his esteem and his confidence ? But 
what return did England make for so mag- 
nanimous an act? They pretended to hold 
out a friendly hand to this enemy ; and when 
he delivered himself up in good faith, they 
sacrificed him." 



NAPOLEON'S WILL. 

" Napoleon. 

"This 15th April, 182 1, at Longwood, 
Island of St. Helena. This is my Testament 
or act of my last will. 

" I. I die in the Apostolical Roman religion, 
in the bosom of which I was born, more than 
fifty years since. 

"2. It is my wish that my ashes may repose 
on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the 
French people, whom I have loved so well. 

"3. I have always had reason to be pleased 
with my dearest wife, Maria-Louisa. I retain 
for her, to my last moment, the most tender 
sentiments. I beseech her to watch, in order 
to preserve my son from the snares which yet 
environ his infancy. 

" 4. I recommend to my son, never to forget 
that he was born a French prince, and never 
to allow himself to become an instrument in 
the hands of the triumvirs who oppress the 
nations of Europe; he ought never to fight 



146 napoleon's addresses. 

against France, or injure lier in any manner; 
he ought to adopt my motto : ' Everything for 
the French people.^ 

"5. I die prematurely, assassinated by the 
English oligarchy and its . . . 

" The English nation will not be slow in 
avenging me. 

"6. The two unfortunate results of the in- 
vasions of France, when she had still so many 
resources, are to be attributed to the treason 
of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and La 
Fayette. 

" I forgive them — may the posterity of 
France forgive them as I do. 

"7. I thank my good and most excellent 
mother, the Cardinal, my brothers, Joseph, 
Lucien, and Jerome, Pauline, Caroline, Julie, 
Hortense, Catherine, Eugene, for the interest 
they have continued to feel for me. I pardon 
Louis for the libel he published in 1820 ; it is 
replete with false assertions and falsified 
documents. 

"8. I disavow the Mamtscript of St. Helena, 
and other works, under the title of Maxims, 
Sayings, etc., which persons have been pleased 
to publish for the last six years. Such are 
not the rules which have guided my life. I 



napoleon's will. 147 

caused the Due d' Enghien to be arrested and 
tried, because that step was essential to the 
safety, interest, and honor of the French 
people, when the Comte d 'Artois was main- 
taining, by his own confession, sixty assassins 
at Paris, Under similar circumstances I 
should act in the same way." 



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